Ready or Not, Here I Come
by Ranko twin
Summary: Sequel to the Shadow Game; AU YAOI. Guess who's back? And madder than ever? Yami, Marik, and Akefia have been released and have forced Yuugi and the gang to play another twisted game, this one more scary than the last. One by one, Yuugi's friends start to disappear and it's up to Yuugi to same them. Will he be able to do it? Or will Yami make sure Yuugi fails? R
1. Chapter 1

**Ranko: Quoting Michelle from Full House, "I'm back!"**

**Yuugi: We all are!**

**Yami: And we're better than ever!**

**Ranko: If you guys have been keeping up with my craziness lately you would have noticed that I posted an alternate ending to the Shadow Game and created a new story RENT! Make sure to check both of them out!**

**Yami: Enough advertising Ranko, we have reviews to answer!**

**Ranko: But it's the first chapter!**

**Yuugi: The reviews from the last chapter of the Shadow Game.**

**Ranko: Okay…(holds up list)**

**hikari no senshi17: The sequel is here! Don't worry, I have plans for some of our favorite pairings and I will stray if I need to. ;)**

**Inspiration's Wonderer: I know! Go Jounouchi!**

**AnimexXxGoddess: Here is the sequel for you! The reason I know about it is because of other fanfics I read that used aibou or other words like that and I did a bit of research. Also reading doujinshi. ;)**

**Verniemac: Thank you! I am planning on doing all three books and I know what you mean. My friend and I read the Forbidden Games together and we wanted Jenny to get together with Julian, he's just so sweet! Again, thanks so much! You have no idea how much your review meant to me!**

**CrimsonStrawberry17: You're telling me. =3**

**PomPoms: Your review? So nice! I'm glad that you enjoyed it so much, I hope you like the sequel just as much! I understand and here is the sequel for you.**

**naomi: Technically, Yami is in the game box.**

**raindropdew: Ew! Tests are icky! Anyway, I'm glad you liked the story so much! And the sequel is here for you enjoyment! I feel loved. 3**

**Dinogirl: You make me feel so loved! :') Thank you so much for the review. Puzzleshipping! And I was planning on having the ring stick to his finger but at the last second I was like, "I wouldn't want to overcomplicate things." I know, I just want to hug Yami! Thanks again and here is the sequel for you!**

**PhantomChaosMagician: No…can't resist…puppy eyes! Here is the sequel for you!**

**Dark-Huntress Sam: I bring forth the sequel!**

**Ranko: Wow! I think I have them all. Thanks so much for all the awesome reviews!**

**Yami: Ranko twin doesn't own anything, we've been through this.**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

**Yuugi: Also, thanks so much Inspiration's Wonderer for letting us use your awesome OC Soren Tiu! He will be making his debut in this sequel! **

-/-

Soren didn't know what it was about the library that made him feel so peaceful. Maybe it was the smell of parchment paper and old lady perform. The way a person got a far off look in their eyes when they read a book. When it grew silent as soon as you entered it, after being in the outside world. Or maybe it was the donations they got from people; all different and unique that someone would learn to love as much as the donor used to.

But when Soren went into work that day at the library, it felt different. He didn't know what it was, but there was this ominous presence hanging over everything. He tried to ignore it most of the day, going about his everyday business. Starting a new book and finishing it the same day and helping bookworms search for a new book they wanted.

He would accept the donations and put them in the storage room in the back for them to be sorted out later; that wasn't his job.

The day flew by quickly and Soren still felt the thick aura hanging over his head. He couldn't wait to lock up and get the hell out of there, for once.

Soren grabbed his backpack and went for the door. He waved goodbye to all the elderly woman he worked with. "Goodbye, ladies."

"Wait, Soren!" one of the ladies called.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Would you mind staying late and sorting out some of the donations we received today?"

Soren's mouth fell open and he gaped. "Um, yeah, sure, I can do that." But he really didn't, he wanted to get home and out of this place.

The elderly woman smiled. "Thank you so much, Soren. You're such a sweet boy and handsome too."

Soren forced out a smile. The boy was seventeen years old and very tall for his age. He had pitch black hair and long bangs that fell in front of his face boyishly. He had expressive emerald eyes and his eyes were always slanted.

"Thanks again Soren," the woman called. "And if you wouldn't mind locking up, too?"

"Yeah, no problem."

The woman smiled and waved goodbye.

And then Soren was alone in the store, and at this point, he wished he had a knife.

Soren cautiously walked to the donation room in the back and the door creaked open. Soren scrambled for a light switch and flicked it on in the small storage space. The donation storage room was the size of a small walk in closet and everything was orderly placed on shelves on the walls, except for the day's donations which were in big garbage bags.

Soren dove right in and worked fast, sorting all the items out. He was almost done when he heard a strange growling sound coming outside the storage room. Soren jumped to his feet and turned around; he gasped in shock. Crouching in the doorway was a large dog. No, that wasn't right, that thing was much too large to be a normal dog.

And standing behind the werewolf was a psychotic looking teen with spiked bleach blond hair and slanted violet eyes. He wore khaki pants and a skintight black tank top with a cape hanging off his shoulders. He smiled at Soren and grabbed a bloody dagger from his belt and sniffed the end of it. Soren recoiled in disgust.

"You smell just like my Malik-pretty," the boy said.

Soren furrowed his eyebrows; wasn't Malik that senior kid that always causes trouble with Bakura?

Suddenly, the boy was in front of Soren his cape fluttering behind him. His deep purple eyes looked deep into Soren's green ones and Soren suddenly felt strangely exhausted, like the energy was being drained out of him.

Marik smirked as the boy's emerald eyes lost their luster and the kid fell unconscious. The spiky blond smirked and licked the end of his dagger. "Thank you, that's all I needed from you, boy."

On his way out, Marik stomped on a rectangular, golden game box with the Eye of Horus in the center. Written quickly on the top was: THE SHADOW GAME.

_Elsewhere ~_

Yuugi tossed and turned in his bed and tried to fight off the nightmare that plagued his sleep.

"No, Yami, please don't! No, please, get away…no. No. No. No! Ryou!" Yuugi screamed, shooting up in bed. The boy gasped for breath for a moment and then scrambled to turn on his bedside lamp. Yuugi let out a sigh of relief when the light illuminated his room.

Yuugi clutched his sheets closer to his body and took deep breaths. The Game was over. Yami was locked away. He will never bother him again. Everything is going to be okay.

So why did he feel so uneasy?

Yuugi's bedroom door slowly opened and a thin silhouette stood in his doorway; Yuugi jumped.

"Yuugi?" Mai asked, stepping into the light of her cousin's room. "Is everything alright? I heard you scream." Mai went over to sit beside Yuugi on his bed.

The boy sighed in relief. "Yeah, I'm fine, just another nightmare."

Mai's eyes softened and she pulled her cousin in for a hug. She rocked Yuugi back and forth and made shushing noises. "It's okay, it was just a nightmare, you don't have to worry."

Yuugi breathed in the scent of Mai and leaned his head on her chest. Now he felt safe.

After they won the Game, life turned almost completely back to normal. Bakura was still grieving and Malik was trying to comfort his friend the best he could. Jounouchi was trying to sort out his feelings towards Seto. They told the police that Ryou went missing; they knew that it was the wrong thing to do, but they had to tell them something and Yuugi _would_ get Ryou back.

And Yuugi and grandpa talked; albeit over the phone but they talked and cleared up many things.

Mai was taking a break from college and staying with Yuugi; he no longer felt safe living alone when grandpa wasn't home. So Mai was going to live with him for a while since grandpa's excavation was going to run longer than he had predicted.

"Hey Mai," Yuugi whispered.

"Yes, hun?"

"Do you think life will ever get back to normal again?"

Mai smiled and smoothed out Yuugi's hair. "I don't know, maybe or maybe not, but then again, who wants to be normal?"

_The next day ~_

Yuugi felt a pair of eyes burning a hole in his back. He was sitting with his friends in the school courtyard, eating lunch and just talking when suddenly, Yuugi felt like he was being watched. He took a quick look over his shoulder and was met by a pair of sharp, slanted eyes.

They were so similar to Yami's that Yuugi nearly jumped out of his skin. But he noticed that the eyes were the color of emeralds, not the hypnotizing ruby that he was so used to seeing.

Yuugi flushed a deep red and turned back to his friends who were now staring at him.

"What's wrong, Yuugi?" Malik asked.

"That guy is staring at me," Yuugi mumbled, not daring to look back.

Bakura narrowed his eyes and looked over Yuugi's shoulder. "Who?" He almost rose to his feet, but Malik put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down into his seat.

"I don't know, just that kid behind me."

Seto Kaiba was tapping at his laptop, a look of deep concentration on his face. He didn't even look up from his word when he said, "That's Soren Tiu, he's in your grade Yuugi and he's always lived in Domino. He has attended all of Domino's public schools since grade school and lives alone downtown. He works at the library and he's known to be a "loner". He doesn't get associated with anyone and likes to be alone."

"How do you know all that?" Honda asked.

Seto looked up. "It's called the internet, dumbass."

"Hey!" Joey snapped. "Don't talk to my friend like that."

Seto's mouth snapped shut and he pursed his lips. He went back to work on his laptop and didn't look up again.

"Soren Tiu?" Yuugi wondered aloud. "Should we go say hi or something? See what's wrong?"

Bakura nodded curtly and stood up abruptly.

"Wh—Bakura?" Malik cried, rising with his friend.

Bakura grabbed Yuugi's elbow and pulled him to his feet. He dragged the small boy behind him across the courtyard to Soren who didn't even seem to notice them even though he was staring right at them.

It wasn't until Bakura, Malik, and Yuugi were all standing in front of him did his eyes actually clear and he was looking at them. His eyes widened noticing Bakura and he jumped in his seat. "Ah!" It looked like he was about to high tail it out of there, but Bakura caught him by the collar.

"Hey, buddy," Bakura said, growling low in his throat. He brought that boy's face closer to his so their noses were touching. "Who do you think you are staring at my friend like that? Hm? Freaking him out and acting like a stalker, and not a very good one at that."

Soren's eyes flickered away from Bakura's for a moment to stare into Yuugi's and then to Malik, and back to Bakura. "Because I hate him."

Yuugi gasped; he didn't even know this guy, how could he hate him? Bakura bared his fangs and lifted the boy off the ground by the collar of his shirt. "What was that? You want to run that one by me again?"

Soren wasn't going to take much more of this; he grabbed Bakura's hand that was fisted in his shirt and struggled to free himself. "You heard me, tough guy, I hate that little runt. I hate all of you! Who do you think you are anyway?" he yelled. Now everyone in the courtyard was staring in their direction, watching; no one dared to interfere, not in the teachers.

Bakura growled. "What was that?"

Soren was smirking now; his emerald eyes glazed over. "I hate all of you, you make me sick. You think I don't know what happened last weekend in Yuugi's house," Soren whispered.

Bakura, Yuugi, and Malik froze; Soren grinned in triumph. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hit a nerve? Are you still sensitive over your little boyfriend's death, Bakura?" Soren asked, mocking sympathy. Bakura's fist slackened and he looked down at the ground. Soren shrugged. "I guess not, since you've already moved on to that little slut: Malik."

Malik grew stiff and downcast his eyes; tears were starting to collect in his lavender eyes.

Bakura's head shot up and his fist once again tightened in Soren's shirt. He bared his fangs and his eyes became a menacing shade of red. "You little piece of shit! Don't you ever, _ever_ talk about my friend like that! Do you understand me? You know nothing! So keep you fucking nose out of other people's fucking business! And I swear, if you ever even mention Ryou's name in front of me like that again, I'll kill you!"

Bakura released Soren's shirt and punched the boy in the jaw.

Soren's eyes cleared back to their luminous green color as he fell. He cried out in pain and curled up in a ball. Yuugi gasped and ran to the boy, crouching down beside him.

Bakura sniffed and stuffed his hands in his pockets before walking off as teachers and staff started to run onto the scene, separating students who started crowding around the injured boy. Yuugi helped take Soren to the nurse as the boy muttered, "What the hell just happened?"

Malik began to chase after Bakura. "Bakura! Wait up!" he called, but Bakura just kept walking, not even looking back.

Malik sighed and followed his friend until Bakura stopped in the middle of an empty hallway. "Bakura?"

Bakura ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, leaning against the nearest wall and then sliding down it to sit down. Malik stood there for a moment and then sat down beside his friend. They just sat there in silence for a few moments until Bakura spoke.

"Do you think Ryou will ever forgive me?" he asked.

Malik's head snapped up and he saw tears rolling down Bakura's face. Malik opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off.

"I know that he is still alive somewhere and we will get him back, but do you think, that once we do find him, he will still love me? That he will forgive me for abandoning him? That I let him…die?"

Malik's eyes softened and he put a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "Of course he will Bakura, none of what happened in the Game was your fault, it was none of our faults. So don't beat yourself up, don't blame yourself; if you want to blame someone, blame those damn Shadow Men." Malik absent mindedly rubbed the shoulder Marik cut with a knife. "They're the ones that caused us this much pain."

Bakura hugged his legs close to his body and rested his chin on his knees. "You don't understand Malik, I promised to protect him; he was so scared. And while I was trapped in that dark room, watching Ryou die and knowing I couldn't do anything t save him, I knew that I failed him." Bakura hid his face as he began to sob. "You didn't see that look in his eyes when he died, over and over; he was crying out for me and I couldn't do anything."

A few tears slipped down Malik's cheeks. He hugged Bakura and smoothed down his wild hair. "I know, I'm sorry, but we will find him and we will bring him back home, and I will be there the whole time to help you." Malik smiled encouragingly.

Bakura looked up and smiled at his long time best friend. "I'm so glad I have you, Malik." Bakura let out a watery chuckle. "Look at me, I'm a mess, I think I would die if anyone else saw me…like this."

Malik giggled. "Hey, what are friends for?"

Bakura grinned and stared deep into Malik's expressive eyes. Bakura caught Malik's chin in his hand and leaned in closer and closer until their breaths tickled the other's lips.

"B-Bakura?" Malik breathed out.

Bakura closed the distance between them and sealed his lips over his best friend's. Malik gasped and then melted into the kiss, closing his eyes and tilting his head to deepen it. Bakura sighed and wrapped his arms around Malik's slim waist.

The two friends stayed like this for what felt like a lifetime. Malik opened his eyes a crack and he caught what looked like a violet cape in his peripheral vision. His eyes widened in fright and he quickly pulled away from Bakura. He swiveled around and tried to catch any signs of _him_, but it was just him and Bakura in an empty hallway.

"Malik?" Bakura asked; he grabbed Malik's shoulders and made him look at him. "Is everything alright?"

Malik blinked and continued to look around; he _swore_ that he saw it. "Y-yeah, everything's fine. I'm sorry, i-its just that, I thought I saw…"

Bakura furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion.

Malik sighed and then put on a fake smile. "It was nothing, I thought I saw someone but I guess it was just a trick of the light."

_Elsewhere ~_

Yuugi sat by Soren's bedside as the boy held an ice pack to his aching jaw. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two. Soren tapped his finger against his leg and tried to avoid making eye contact with Yuugi.

"Yuugi-san?" Soren suddenly spoke.

Yuugi looked up from his lap. "Hm?"

"I-I'm so sorry about what happened in the courtyard, I just want you to know that I didn't mean anything I said. I-I don't know what got over me." Soren looked down in shame.

Yuugi smiled and patted Soren's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Soren, I believe you."

The boy sighed in relief. "That's good to know."

"But…" Yuugi started; Soren deflated. "What you said about knowing what happened at my house last weekend…?"

Soren furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I said that?"

Yuugi mirrored Soren's look of confusion. "Yes, you did."

Soren thought for a moment and then shrugged. "I don't remember ever saying something like that."

Yuugi nodded hesitantly and rose from his seat. He checked the clock on the wall and gasped. "Oh, I better get to class. It was nice meeting you, Soren," Yuugi said as he left the infirmary.

"See you late, Yuugi," the boy said weakly.

As Yuugi was leaving the phone rang in the nurse's personal office. Yuugi looked around and noticed no one where there, and it could be important. He would just pick up the phone, ask for the message and give it to the nurse later. Yuugi nodded and went to pick it up.

"Hello? This is the nurse's office, student speaking."

He heard an electronic hiss. Then there was a click, and in the static he seemed to hear a low whispering in a male voice. It was distorted, drawn out, and there was something weird about the way the syllables were stressed. It sounded like one word whispered over and over.

_A_ as in _apple_. Then a dragging, hissing sigh: _ish. A…ish…_

Gibberish.

"Hello?" Yuugi asked again.

The hissing sound again and then a _click_. In the background he heard something that might have been speech. Like someone muttering right into the receiver so it came out muffled and whispy.

Yuugi slammed the receiver back in its cradle and then ran out the door, passing the nurse on his way.

The speech sounded familiar, but Yuugi couldn't quite pinpoint where he'd heard it before. But none the less, he felt an uneasy feeling settle in his gut; the same feeling he got when he opened THE SHADOW GAME box for the first time.

He had to find his friends, they had to talk, because Yuugi had a horrible feeling that a storm was coming.

-/-

**Ranko: And that is it for now! I hope you guys enjoyed it! This chapter was so much fun to write and I have a good feeling about this story!**

**Yami: What was with the thiefshipping moment?**

**Ranko: I think that its cute but I'm still 100% tendershipper!**

**Yuugi: Why was Soren so mean?**

**Ranko: He's not really like that! You'll see, I have plans for this OC.**

**Yami: As always, make sure to review. The more reviews Ranko gets the faster she will work on the next chapter and the shorter we have to wait.**

**Ranko: Stop being a bitch, Yami. **

**Yuugi: Review, please! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Ranko: OMG! Guys, do you know how awesome you are?**

**Yuugi: How awesome are they?**

**Ranko: Everyone has been so supportive and nice in their reviews and it's about time I thank you guys for your awesomeness by posting the next chapter! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, blame school.**

**Yami: You've been talking about reviews so why don't we answer them already?**

**Ranko: Oh yeah! (holds up list) Let's see…**

**raindropdew: Thanks for the fav! Your review made me laugh, in a good way. I know what you mean, the phone call gave me chills when I was writing it. I love Seto! He's so sweet and I just want to squeeze Yuugi. And you never know, Yuugi's nightmare could be foreshadowing ;)**

**Shaliza's Scarab: Yeah, Soren is pretty cool, and thank you by the way; I was afraid I just shoved him into the story awkwardly. I know, the phone call crept me out! And I was the one who wrote it! Anyway, I think your right about Marik and Bakura.**

**hikari no senshi17: I know, I kind of wanted to make it obvious so the readers wouldn't start to hate Soren ^^". Thanks for the awesome review and yes, the Game does have to be played for the Shadow Men to be released, gives you something to think about ;)**

**Aqua girl 007: I loved your review! There will be more thiefshipping moments for you!**

**Pharaoh Silver: Fangirls unite!**

**Dinogirl: Lol, no problem. I'm not sure who it was calling Yuugi -.- haven't gotten that far yet. Thanks for the review!**

**Tyrant Dragon Knight: Oh, poor Yami, he's so abused, but that's why we love him ^^**

**Ranko: (points to Yami) Do the disclaimer, slave!**

**Yami: I am no one's slave! Ranko twin does not own the Forbidden Game series or anything to do with Yu-Gi-Oh.**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

The Domino City Police men were not very well known. The town they were supposedly "protecting" relatively stayed out of trouble. No one went above the speed limit, no ran any red lights, and no _ever_ bullied another person…as far as they knew. Domino was a relatively safe town with friendly people, so they were never called upon to solve a crime or…really patrol at all.

All that was true until they got a phone call the other day from a hysterical woman saying her step-brothers were missing: Ryuzaki and Haga. Apparently, the two boys had gone out last weekend, Saturday morning to be exact, to go take care of some "business" for Ushio. "I never liked that boy," the sister had said. The sister said they were out all day and then all day Sunday, but she figured that the boys were staying at a friend's house "or something," she said.

But when it came around to Monday, the girl started to worry. She called all of Ryuzaki's and Haga's friends, which is very few and none of them had seen the boys. This is when she panicked and called the police, who were currently searching areas that the brothers liked to go to.

The police were slipping and sliding in the muddy slopes of the Domino Forest, which was actually just a part of the park, but the more woodsy area. This is where the boys would go after school so they wouldn't have to go home to their step-father, their step-sister's father. It was always muddy and dark, and there were fallen trees blocking the path. If one travelled far enough they would come across a dirty creek.

The police were searching the area fully; they had found a pair of footprints in the mud leading deeper into the forest where the boys usually traveled.

"Hey, guys!" one of the policemen called from the bottom of a slippery slope, leading down to the creek. "I…I think you might want to take a look at this."

The rest of the patrol team, which consisted of three other men and one woman, carefully slid down the slope, grappling onto trees that were still standing for support.

"What is it?" the woman in the group asked when she reached the bottom by the creek.

The officer's face was grim and he shook his head. His companions looked over the man's shoulder and all gasped simultaneously. The creek was dyed in red blood and black ink. And two bodies of certain teenage boys were sitting against the rocks in the creek as the stream pushed against their limp bodies. Their eyes stared lifelessly ahead and the clothes they were last seen in clung to their skin, highlighting their wounds.

The two boys looked like they had been poisoned; skin was bulging in certain places, their gums were black, and their fingernails a discerning shade of blue. They also looked like they had been attacked by some kind of beast for they had slash marks across their torso and back.

And sitting on the bed of the creek was a paper, Victorian style doll house with two small paper dolls that had an **X** drawn on their chest where their little paper hearts would be located.

The woman knelt down beside the paper house, trying to ignore the stench of dead bodies as one of her comrades called headquarters to report the situation.

The woman officer picked up one of the dolls. This one looked like Haga and the other one almost looked like Ryuzaki; the two boys were definitely not artists. She put the dolls in an evidence bag and fingered the tagboard of the paper doll house, it was crumpled and looked like it once had a shine but was now dirty.

It looked like a game of some sorts; she remembered her little niece had something like this, except it wasn't as gothic.

"I wondered what happened here…" she wondered.

At that moment the shadows of the trees stirred and flicked, getting taller and forming a human shape. The only thing visible was white teeth flashing a smirk and then in the next moment the shape disappeared in a snap, blending and molding into the other shadows.

The woman police officer gulped and with shaky hands reached for her cell phone. She quickly dialed a familiar number and listened to the constant ringing until someone picked up and a soft voice answered.

"_Hello?"_

The woman licked her dry lips. "Hey, Mai? It's me, Miho, are you free this afternoon?" Miho paused as she listened to Mai's response and looked over her shoulder to the trees behind her. "Yeah, I think that something strange is going on."

_Elsewhere ~_

Yuugi wondered around campus looking for his friends. He first went to the bench they were all sitting around before all the chaos had started that day. Seto and Jounouchi still sat there, having a relatively civilized conversation, due to the large gap in the two boys' vocabulary.

When they saw Yuugi approach they shot up to sit up straight and Jou waved Yuugi over. "Hey Yuugi, what's up? How's that Soren kid?"

Yuugi stiffly shrugged, trying to look casual but failed. "He's fine, where's everyone else?"

Jounouchi waved his hand in a dismissing manner. "They just wondered off." Then the blond noticed how freaked Yuugi looked. His eyes were looking around frantically and his fingers curled and uncurled tensely. "Why? Yuugi, is everything all right?"

Yuugi gulped and shook his head. "I'm not sure, we need to gather everyone though; we need to talk."

Jounouchi heard the urgency in Yuugi's voice and stood, Seto following. "Alright, let's go."

They first found Anzu; she was in the workout room running on a treadmill. She was plugged into her music and was huffing as she ran to the beat of a song. Her arms were swinging at her side and the muscles in her long, slender legs flexed. She noticed her friends approaching before they made themselves known to her.

She slowly turned off the treadmill and pulled the earphones out of her ears, stepping off the exercising machine. "Hey, what's up?"

"Get cleaned up," Jou said, tossing the girl a towel. "Meet us in the courtyard, usual spot when your done; we need to talk."

Anzu wiped sweat from her forehead and nodded, noting the seriousness in Jou's tone.

Next they went looking for Honda, which wasn't very hard. This was his free period and he usually spent his time at the school's auto shop, working on cars and fixing up his own motorcycle. The head of the department, Ryuji Otogi, spent most of his time ogling Honda instead of actually working. Every time Otogi asked Honda out, the brunet would constantly remind the flirt of his sexuality.

In fact, this is how the two boys introduced themselves when they first met:

_Otogi held out his hand to shake. "Hey, I'm Ryuji Otogi, I'm gay."_

_Honda awkwardly accepted the hand and shook it. "Hi, I'm Honda Hiroto, I'm not."_

They found Honda working on the engine of an old car, his school uniform replaced with greasy, dirty overalls. He was bending over the hood and Otogi's eyes were glued to the boy's ass as he asked Honda, "So do you want to—?"

"No."

"Can you—?"

"No."

"Are you free—?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Honda?" Yuugi asked, getting to boy's attention. Honda and Otogi looked up at the same time and Yuugi awkwardly cleared his throat. "When you're done with…whatever you're doing, meet us at the usual place in the courtyard. We have to talk."

Honda nodded and reached for the rag in his back pocket to clean his face with.

After Honda's group of friends left, Otogi came up behind him and hugged the man's shoulders. "So…can I come?"

Honda gave Otogi a look and threw his hands off of him. "No!" He then proceeded to go back to work on the car and Otogi pouted for the rest of the day.

Finding Bakura and Marik was harder. They knew the two boys were together; Malik had run off to find Bakura and Malik was too stubborn to not leave Bakura's side.

But something Yuugi was not expecting for the two boys to find _them_.

The two of them were walking closer to each other then usual but at the same time tried to put as much distance between each other as possible. Malik had a far away look in his eyes and Bakura was looking anywhere but at his best friend.

Seto raised a skeptical eyebrow at the two friends; Yuugi also noticed the tension between the boys. Jounouchi was the only one who remained oblivious. "Hey, guys! Where did you disappear to?"

"N-no where."

Jounouchi blinked once, then twice and shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever; anyway, we all need to talk, come on."

Bakura nodded and followed his friends out to the courtyard, Malik following a step behind him. When the group of friends got to the courtyard and made it to their usual bench, Anzu and Honda were already there; both cleaned up and dressed in their school uniforms.

"Hey Yuugi," Anzu greeted. "So what's up?"

"Yeah, what's happening?" Malik asked.

Yuugi sighed and fell down onto the bench seat. "The other night, I had a nightmare. It's a reoccurring nightmare I've had since we defeated the Game. In this dream, I'm back in the Game and Yami is free, he's saying something to me and his red eyes glow. And then…I'm running, running away from something or someone, all I see is green…green eyes, a-and then I see Ryou…" Yuugi gulped.

Bakura stiffened and leaned in to listen more closely.

"He's in this freakish amusement park and he's dressed in white, but…there's so much blood, he's just standing in a pool of blood and he's smiling at me. And he's crying blood, but he's smiling, and then he, says something…" Yuugi closed his eyes and shook his head to try and get the picture out of his head. "But that's when I usually wake up, before I can find out what he's going to say to me."

Jounouchi sat down next to his friend and patted his shoulder.

Yuugi continued. "But that isn't what I wanted to tell you guys. Something strange is going on. When I was in the infirmary with Soren…"

Bakura growled and Malik put a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, Bakura," he ordered.

"No, I won't! You heard what Tiu said about Ryou! I hate that bastard, not to mention something is off about him. I don't trust him." With that said, Bakura crossed his arms and turned away.

"Anyway," Yuugi said, ignoring Bakura's outburst. "When I was in the infirmary, I was talking with him about what he said earlier today and he says he doesn't remember anything, like it never happened. And then when I was leaving, the phone in the nurse's office rang and when I answered it, it was just some strange whispering and shushing noise; I know that it was talking not just nonsense and I thought I recognized the mumbling but it was so…strange. I hung up and ran to find you guys as fast as I could."

"And?" Bakura asked, obviously irritable and in a bad mood.

"Something strange is going on and I have bad feeling that something is going to happen," Yuugi explained. At that moment, Yuugi's cellphone rang. He pulled out the phone from his pants pocket and checked the caller I.D. "It's Mai…" he declared before pressing talk.

"Hello?" he answered.

"_Hey Yuugi, are you still at school?"_

Yuugi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Yeah, sixth period is about start."

"_I need you to come to the police station right now,"_ Mai said urgently._ "Are you with your friends?"_

Now Yuugi was getting worried. "Yeah, there here with me. Mai, are you okay? Why do you need us at the police station?"

"_Good, I need all of your friends here. Please hurry; I'll explain when you get here."_

And then Mai hung up.

Yuugi stared at his cellphone for a moment in astonishment, like it would do a trick if he stared at it long enough. After a moment, he shook his head and stuffed his phone back in the pocket of his school uniform.

"What was that all about?" Honda asked.

"Mai wants us all at the police station right away, it sounds like it's really important," Yuugi said.

"But sixth period is about to start," Anzu argued.

"It wouldn't be the first time we've skipped class," Malik reasoned.

"Good point," Jounouchi said before the group of friends ran out the school gates and downtown to the police station.

None of them noticed a pair of luminescent green eyes watching them. The narrow eyes became slits and a red tinge glowed in the emerald eyes.

"_**It's time to put you to good use, Soren Tiu; you will be a very important piece in this Game."**_

_Elsewhere ~_

When they got to police station down town, they found Mai pacing back and forth in the lobby as men and women in blue uniforms went about their daily business. When she saw Yuugi enter with his group of friends she rushed towards them. She scooped her smaller cousin up in a hug. "Hey Yuugi, I'm so happy to see you!" She set Yuugi back down on his feet and greeted the rest of his friends. "I'm so happy to see all of you. You will never believe what one of my friends found this morning when they were—!"

Suddenly a female police officer with blue hair tied up with a yellow ribbon came up behind Mai and slapped a delicate calloused hand over her mouth. "That's enough, Mai! You can't just go yelling out information like that; it's all confidential." The women released Mai and smiled at the teens. "Hello, I'm Miho Nosaka, pleased to meet you all."

She received miscellaneous replies and greetings back.

"If all of you will just follow me to my office and I will explain why I requested your audience," the sweet women said before turning around and leading the group deeper into the station.

Honda sighed dreamily as he followed the women. "I think I'm in love."

Jounouchi sighed and shook his head, elbowing Honda in the gut.

They soon reached a small room with a desk piled high with paper work and an old computer sitting on the corner. There was a book shelf against one of the walls filled with documents and books, and a few personnel items such as pictures and knick knacks. A few chairs were sitting in front of the desk and one lumpy sofa.

"This is my office," Miho stated, sitting in her desk chair. "Please, make yourself comfortable."

Everyone sat down, either in a stiff back chair or on the itchy sofa; Seto decided to stand.

Honda noticed a photo of Miho and another man sitting on her desk. "Who's that?" he asked.

"Oh," Miho exclaimed, picking up the small frame. "This is my fiancé."

Honda's head hung in dejection; Jounouchi patted his friend on the back.

Miho laced her fingers together and rested her chin on her laced fingers. "All of you are probably wondering what you are doing here." Miho received head nods. "Well, a few days ago we received a missing person's alert of two boys; I'm sure you know Haga and Ryuzaki?"

Yuugi gasped; the two boys who were following him the day he purchased the Game, the ones that were going to join Ushio's gang.

"Well, their step-sister called us and told us that the two boys went missing on Saturday; no one knew of their whereabouts until this morning." Miho closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose. She slid one of her desk drawers open and laid down a number of photos displaying the scene where the two boys were found and multiple pictures of the boys.

Yuugi had to look away.

"When we found them, we also found something that might be of interest to you; the reason we called you over. Yuugi, your cousin Mai explained to me what happened in the Game," Miho said softly.

"Mai?" Yuugi asked, turning towards his cousin who simply nodded her head.

"I've known Mai since high school and, lets just say that I know a good deal of information about your family heritage, Yuugi," Miho explained.

"Can you get to the point?" Bakura snapped.

Miho cleared her throat and nodded. "Certainly; you see, when we found Haga and Ryuzaki, we also found something I believe they stole from you Sunday morning."

Miho reached behind her desk and gently lifted the Victorian style paper doll house.

There was a collective gasp in the room as the teens stared at the Game like it would disappear any second, like it wasn't real.

Miho didn't wait for the teens to recover before she pulled out the two paper dolls. "With it, we also found these," she said, displaying paper doll-Haga and paper doll-Ryuzaki on her desk.

Jounouchi stared wide eyed at the dolls. "Yuugi? You don't think that they…?"

Yuugi shook his head and put his head in his hands. "I don't know, I don't know…"

"They have the same **X** on their chest that Ryou's nightmare had after he…couldn't defeat it," Seto observed. He studied the pictures of Haga and Ryuzaki's dead bodies again and Yuugi could have sworn he saw Seto turn a surprising shade of green. "Do you think they died in the Game?"

Malik was shaking and despite his tan skin tone, the boy was turning pale. He _knew_ he saw Marik's cape fluttering in the hallway earlier. He burst out of his seat in outrage. "Who cares about that?" he screamed. "What matters is that the Shadow Men are running free and they're dangerous and angry!"

Yuugi gulped; he didn't think of that.

"And they're going to find us and—and…I don't even know what they're going to do! Oh my, God! Oh my, God!" He rubbed the shoulder that Marik cut with a knife; that psychopath was running around free and looking for him. "What the hell are we going to do?" Malik cried.

Miho rose to her feet. "Please sir, calm down."

"Why should I calm down? Would you calm down if you were in our situation? Give me one good reason to calm down!" Malik snapped. Then everyone heard sobbing and all heads swiveled in Yuugi's direction.

The small boy was curled up in a ball in the corner of the couch, his small body shaking from the sobs that wracked his body. He understood why Malik was so hysterical; he had good reason to be. Marik was free and looking for the boy. And Yami…Yami was free, he was angry, and he was probably looking for Yuugi for revenge.

It scared the hell out of him.

The nightmares…the nightmares were coming true. They were coming to life, just like the Game all over again.

Yuugi had always thought, 'If Yami got out, he would find me. He'd hunt me down and take his revenge.'

Mai quickly ran over to her cousin and hugged him. She rocked the boy back and forth and made soothing sounds in his ear while smoothing down his wild hair. "Shh, Yuugi, it's okay, shh."

Yuugi's eyes were dry; now he was just staring at the paper doll house in horror. He remembered the night he and his friends put it together, and then the next morning he destroyed it. He crushed it and smashed it until it was flat. How foolish he was being; how careless.

He should have burned it.

-/-

**Ranko: And that's the end of chapter two! Again, sorry for getting it up so late! My Wi-Fi isn't working on my laptop and school has been a real bitch lately.**

**Yami: We hope you enjoyed this chapter! As you can tell, Ranko is trying a new style by writing scenes in different perspectives, as you saw in the beginning of the chapter.**

**Yuugi: Review if you want to see more to stalker Yami!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ranko: (groans) So tired…**

**Yami: What happened to you?**

**Ranko: High school can go to hell…**

**Yami: Enough said.**

**Yuugi: Okay? On a lighter note, Ranko, you have reviews to answer!**

**Ranko: (yawns) Okay, let's see…(holds up list)**

**hikari no senshi17: Sometimes it is hard to remember that the Yu-Gi-Oh characters are still in high school, though it's hard to believe, and that means that experience high school drama (groans). Anyway, I hope that Yami does truly mean what he said in the alternate ending, but you never know.**

**raindropdew: We all have those days :) thanks for the review.**

**Doragon-chan: No! I should know what you mean because I love the YGO abridged series but I don't! I should probably go look it up.**

**Dinogirl: I know what you mean! When I am stressed out I do not want to hear "It's going to be okay" from my friends! I will bite their heads off…but that's beside the point. Anyway, thank you for the kind words and awesome review!**

**naomi: The Shadow Game is not the only game they will play. There is a whole new game in this story.**

**Ranko: Can I take a nap?**

**Yami: Not yet.**

**Yuugi: Ranko twin does not own anything to do with the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise and the Forbidden Game books. This is all for fun!**

**Ranko: Enjoy…(falls asleep)**

-/-

In Soren's subconscious mind, he was trapped. He was being held prisoner in his own body as his own shadow came to life and took over. He had no power; it was like running in a dream, but you could never run fast enough. That is the feeling Soren got when he was possessed.

The first time it happened, he was in the library, in the storage room, when he met that crazy looking man for the first time with that great beast at his side. He remembered that a shadow had taken control of his body and mind and he was forced to hide the dead bodies of two boys he used to go to school with.

Yes, he remembered everything that happened when he was possessed by this strange being. It was like looking through a window and watching but never being able to do anything about it.

The next time he was possessed was when Bakura, Malik, and Yuugi came walking towards him that one day. He had felt joy at first, he had always admired Yuugi Motou from afar but then it became dread as the familiar feeling of being crept upon came over him. And then he was shoved into that little room in his soul that he was always trapped in when the shadow took over.

Then when he "woke up" he had a nasty bruise on his face from being punched and was being assisted to the infirmary.

Then something new happened, something that had never happened the other two times he was possessed.

He was in a deep, dreamless slumber when he was possessed next and he came face to face with the "shadow" that had taken residence in his body for the time being. He almost fell over in shock when he stood across from an exact replica of Yuugi Motou.

He was a man with spiked up, star shaped hair with three different colors, like Motou's, the only difference was that this man's hair had lightning bolt bangs shooting up his hair. The man's face was more angular and he was taller and more slender than Yuugi. And instead of soft, light amethyst colored eyes, the man had cold ruby eyes that glowed menacingly. They were slanted and his smirk was almost sadistic.

Soren heard the man say only one thing before he felt a fluttering in his heart beat that warned he was going to be possessed once again.

"Yami…"

_Elsewhere ~_

The group of friends, plus Mai, walked out of the police station. Mai was holding Yuugi and Malik in each arm to keep the two shaken boys standing. Jounouchi was rubbing his forehead, as if to keep back a migraine and Honda rolled his stiff shoulders; Anzu kept a hand on each of the boy's shoulders. Seto was the only one who remained silent and alone.

"What are we going to do?" he asked aloud.

Everyone was left speechless; what were they going to do? It was kind of a waiting game. They had no idea where the Shadow Men were and when they might strike next. But the Shadow Men were more powerful then Yuugi and the gang and probably knew their exact location at this very moment.

Mai shook her head and tightened her arms around the two teenage boys she was supporting. "I think we all need to sit down and think up a plan; who knows what the Shadow Men are thinking up right now and we need to be ready. Suguroku will be out of town for a couple more weeks, if everyone wants to crash at the Game Shop so we can all be together, that's fine. We have plenty of room."

Malik nodded his head silently. "Yeah, I just have to get my stuff from my place."

"I'll go with you," Bakura said.

Jounouchi shrugged. "I might as well, its better than living at home. I'll just go into town; I need to get a few things."

Anzu looked up helplessly. "I don't know guys, this all seems really silly, don't you think?"

Malik's head snapped up. He stopped abruptly which forced Mai and Yuugi to stop as well. "How is this silly, Anzu?" Malik asked, his temper rising. "This is serious! I don't understand why you aren't as worried as the rest of us are! I'm sure if you had a Shadow Man hunting you you'd be scared as hell too!"

Anzu stopped gave Malik a pointed look. "I never said it wasn't serious, Malik; I just mean its silly to go to such lengths as living together when we don't even know what the Shadow Men are doing."

Mai sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That's the point, Anzu. We're doing this and grouping together because we _don't_ know what the Shadow Men are going to do, and its best if we all stay together in case something does happen."

Anzu raked her fingers through her hair in frustration and groaned. "I am not going to give up my life just of some stupid threat!" The girl turned on her heel and started walking in the direction of her house, calling over her shoulder, "I'm going home; I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

Anzu stormed down the street as tears of frustration burned her eyes. She rubbed away the salty tears before they could fall past her eyelids. Stupid friends, and stupid threat, and stupid Shadow Men!

A hand shot out from the shadows of an alley and clasped a hand over Anzu's mouth before she even drew in a breath to scream. She felt herself being pulled away; there was a slick rope like thing coiling around her legs and a low growling sound emanating from the shadows.

That was the last thing she remembered before she passed out.

_Elsewhere ~_

Honda stared worriedly down the street where Anzu had been walking, he knew he shouldn't worry, but he couldn't help it; she was his friend, no matter how stubborn she can be.

Jounouchi clasped a hand over Honda's shoulder and squeezed. "Don't worry about Anzu, she's just confused; we all area. Give her a little time; she'll get over the melodrama."

Honda worried his lower lip between his teeth and nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I guess you're right." So why couldn't he shake the feeling of something terrible happening?

"So when do you guys want to meet at the Game Shop?" Mai asked, an arm still around her cousin, though Yuugi seemed to have recovered from his initial shock.

Honda checked his watch. "In an hour, I guess. That will give everyone time to get there stuff and get to the Game Shop."

Mai nodded her head in agreement and everyone went off in different directions. Bakura went to accompany Malik back to his apartment; Seto followed Jounouchi into town like a taller, colder shadow and Honda ran past Yuugi and Mai towards his house.

Mai squeezed Yuugi in a half hug. "Come on, Yuugi, we have to prepare the apartment for our guests."

Yuugi squirmed his way out of his cousin's arms and started to back away. "Actually, I have to go check on something; you go on ahead, I'll meet you at the Game Shop."

Mai noticed that Yuugi was inching towards the road Anzu took. The blonde nodded her head in understanding and waved her hand in a shooing motion. "Go, I'll meet you back at the house."

Yuugi gave his older cousin a thankful look and took off running down the street Anzu took. It was the way she usually walked home from school; a relatively public area because the girl was always worried that if she was alone she would get kidnapped. But today the street was nearly barren.

Yuugi was so busy looking through up and down the street for people he didn't notice one lone person walking in the opposite direction as him until he ran into this person. Yuugi nearly fell down on his back side from the collision. One thing he hated about being short was that his nose always took the brunt of the damage when he ran into people.

The man he collided with groaned and Yuugi noticed that this person did fall from the run in. Yuugi scrambled to help the person, stuttering out apologies. "I'm so sorry, I didn't even see you there; I'm sorry." Yuugi grabbed the man's calloused, large hand and began to pull to help him up.

"Don't worry about it," a familiar voice groaned. Yuugi's eyes widened in surprise and shock; he looked down into a pair of narrow, emerald eyes and dropped Soren's hand, making the teenage boy fall again.

Yuugi nearly shrieked. "I am so sorry!" He helped Soren to his feet without dropping him this time.

Soren straightened up, towering over Yuugi, and rubbed his sore tailbone. "Damn…" he mumbled.

Yuugi bowed lowly. "I'm so, so sorry."

Soren blinked and awkwardly looked up and down the block. "Don't worry about it; I should have watched where I was going."

Yuugi straightened and smiled, and then realized something. "Soren, what are you doing out of school?"

Soren stared at Yuugi for a moment and then smirked; the crooked upturn of the lips sent a bad shiver up Yuugi's spine, it was so familiar.

"I could ask you the same question."

Yuugi stuttered for a moment and made wild hand gestures, as if trying to catch words from the air and put them in his mouth. "Well, um, you see…my friend Anzu—"

Soren's eyes darkened and almost gained a rusty red tinge, something Yuugi failed to notice. "Anzu? That bubbling bimbo that moved here last year?"

Yuugi's mouth fell open and he gaped. Where did that come from? "Um…I'm guessing you don't like Anzu?"

Soren stared at Yuugi, but not directly at him, more like through him.

"Soren?" Yuugi asked.

The taller man's emerald eyes cleared and he literally jolted as he refocused. "Oh, I'm sorry, Yuugi. I really am." Soren's eyes were almost fearful. He started to back up, away from Yuugi, and held his hands out in front of him like warding off a demon. "I've gotta go…I hope you find Anzu!"

The tall teen turned on his heel and took off down the street, disappearing behind the next street corner.

Yuugi stared after Soren long after he was gone and then came to a conclusion. "I never told him I was looking for Anzu…"

_Malik and Bakura ~_

Bakura stood in the corner of Malik's room as the blond ran around the room gathering his things and writing a note to Ishizu. She wasn't home, still working at the museum and she didn't like people calling her when she was working.

Ever since Malik learned that the Shadow Men were free, he had been shaking. It literally pained Bakura to see his best friend in this state. He had never seen Malik like this, and the two of them have known each other for years.

The small boy was always so strong, even when he didn't need to be. Yet he was so broken and fragile after years of being mistreated. He hid his wounds behind his smile and happy demeanor. He was beautiful, yet so scarred. He had no physical scars but his heart was beaten and bruised. Those beautiful doe, brown eyes…

Bakura shook his head to clear those thoughts; he was thinking of Ryou again. Why did his thoughts of Malik always overlap with the thoughts and memories of Ryou?

Without warning, Bakura went up behind Malik and wrapped his arms around his friend's slim waist. It was so comforting to have a warm body against his again. But Malik's body didn't fit as perfectly against his as Ryou's did.

"It's going to be okay," Bakura mumbled, hiding his face in Malik's silky hair. He closed his eyes and saw Ryou's magnificent smile and shining eyes. Who was he trying to convince when he said that?

Bakura desperately kissed Malik's neck and cheek, gripping him tightly.

"Bakura," Malik spoke up meekly. "Please stop," he said firmly.

This surprised Bakura; he removed his face from Malik's neck and looked into the boy's hard lavender eyes. "What?"

Malik unwrapped Bakura's arms from around his waist and stepped away. "Bakura, I understand that you are still grieving over Ryou; hell, I miss him too. And don't deny that you don't think about him, I see it in the look in your eyes and your actions, you think about him nonstop and I understand! But do not make me some kind of rebound, someone to fill the void! I don't want that! Not now, especially after everything that has happened! If you want to be with me, I want it to be out of love not just some need because your hurting!"

Malik grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulders. He began to walk past Bakura but the taller male grabbed the boy's hand before he could leave. "Wait, Malik—"

Without looking back, Malik jerked his hand out of Bakura's. "Don't follow me." With that said, Malik stormed out of his own home.

Malik stopped outside the apartment complex and just stood there for a moment. Then he limply fell against the brick wall gating the compound and slid down it. He hugged his legs close to his chest and hid his face in his knees. He should be crying, he should be so upset that he wanted to scream, but he didn't; he couldn't.

There was a whisper of the wind and Malik saw the fluttering of a plum cape out of his peripheral vision and spiked platinum blond hair. Malik felt his nerves jump and he snapped his head up.

He was alone.

There was no one on the lone street except himself and an alley cat. Malik stood on shaky legs and ran the rest of the way to the Game Shop, tripping over his own feet in his haste.

_Jounouchi and Seto ~_

"Why the hell are you following me?" Jou asked as he walked down the street, Seto Kaiba acting as his shadow.

"I have nothing better to do?"

Jounouchi scowled and wondered aimlessly down the market place, refusing to acknowledge Seto as children and adults pointed at the tall teen in awe, seeing th CEO of the largest gaming company of the country walking down the street.

"So you were once in love with the midget?"

That came out of nowhere.

Jounouchi turned a bright shade of red and whirled around to face the cold man. "What the f—?"

"Language, Jounouchi," Seto cut in.

Jou looked down at his feet and started to walk again. "Why do you care?"

"I don't."

"Then why did you ask?" Jounouchi cried in outrage.

Seto was silent for a moment and then asked. "What was your nightmare in the Game?"

Jounouchi stared at Kaiba for a moment like he was crazy. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you need help?"

Kaiba shot the blond a look. "I'm just curious."

"Well—! Wait…what?" Jounouchi asked, dumbfounded; Seto Kaiba sounded honest, like he really wanted to know. The tall blond stood with his mouth gaping open; Seto rolled his eyes.

The irritated expression melted into a look of hurt, like he was just told his best friend was moving away and he would never see them again. "I'll tell you what my nightmare was, or is."

Jounouchi realized how serious the man was and waved his hands in front of him like warding off flies. "You don't need to—"

"I watched my little brother get murdered before my eyes and unable to save him."

And it felt like the world dropped under Jounouchi's feet. That was Seto Kaiba's fear? That was his nightmare? Under the visage of being untouchable and unapproachable, under all of that stoniness and cold heartedness, was a man that was just as weak and human as the next guy?

Seto continued. "And you killed him."

Jounouchi felt his eyes widened out of proportion. "Wh-what?"

Kaiba smiled, but it was a humorless smile. "In my nightmare, I drove you to that madness, to go insane enough to kill Mokuba. Because of all the rude things I say to you. I told that hallucination of you that I never wanted to cause you this much pain, I never want to cause you pain, but that seems to be the only thing I'm good at."

Jounouchi gulped; he felt his heart stop and his blood stop in his veins and then flow back with a rush. He suddenly remembered what Yuugi had said to him the next morning they came out of the Game.

"I am so sorry, Jounouchi. And I just want to say, I—"

Jounouchi's cellphone rang in the pocket of his jacket; the boy nearly jumped ten feet in the air; time was suddenly returning to his senses.

He fished his cellphone out of his pocket and pressed TALK. "Hello?" he asked.

"_Jounouchi? Where are you?"_

It was Yuugi.

"Um, I'm here in town with Kaiba."

"_Can you hurry to the Game Shop? Everyone else is here and we've been waiting for you guys. We need to talk."_

Joey snorted. "When do we not need to talk?"

"_Ha-ha, can you just please hurry?"_

"Yeah, we'll be right over."

"_Okay, thanks."_

And then Yuugi hung up.

Jounouchi stuffed his phone back in his pocket and turned back around to face Kaiba. The blond raised a questioning eyebrow; did Kaiba look dejected? Jounouchi decided to ignore it for now and shoved what Kaiba was going to say to him to the back of his mind. "We've been called upon."

-/-

**Ranko: That is the end of chapter three! Thank you for reading, as always! I'm sorry that it's going to slow right now, but it will pick up. Honestly, this is not my favorite chapter. Let me just say that in the original book, it moved even slower, I'll try to pick it up so I don't lose you guys! **

**Yami: Stop making excuses, Ranko.**

**Ranko: I'm not! Anyway, updates will be coming later because of school but I will try to post one every week, more or less. Sorry that the chapters are getting shorter.**

**Yuugi: Please review! The more reviews, the faster the update!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ranko: (crying)**

**Yuugi: What's wrong, Ranko?**

**Yami: It can't be that bad, you whiny bitch.**

**Ranko: Shut up! I have to leave all of you lovely readers soon. In the month of November I will be doing NaNoWriMo where I have to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days! I am sorry, but I will not be updating in that month, I hate to leave you all!**

**Yami: That's it?**

**Yuugi: Yami! Be nice!**

**Yami: She did NaNoWriMo last year too! Its not that big of a deal, besides, I don't know why she's telling people so early when there is still a few weeks of October left.**

**Ranko: Whatever, let's just answer reviews…(holds up list)**

**Inspiration's Wonderer: Oh no! "I've fallen and I can't get up, choose Life Alert!" (Yami: Ranko, you're an idiot). I'm not sure if Yuugi will be discussing about what happened to Soren, I haven't planned that far ahead ^^"**

**raindropdew: Thank you, I try my best. I just love to abuse Soren, it's so easy, but I love the character to bits! Then again, I love Ryou and I did kill him off…don't worry! No more character deaths…for now.**

**chesirecat1: Yes, Soren did take Anzu, but I guess you can count it as the Shadow Men since Yami is controlling Soren. Awesome pen name, by the way.**

**Ceaselessfall: It's okay, a lot of people haven't read the books. I think I might just have to add your suggestion, I like it ;)**

**Doragon-chan: I did look up the quote on your profile and I remember it now. That is one of my favorites! And yes, Yami is possessing Soren. I kind of made it obvious so I'm not worried about a spoiler alert.**

**Dinogirl: (tearing eyed) Thank you so much, your so nice. Yeah, Anzu/Tea seems to find a way to get herself into trouble -_- what are you gonna do? Yay! More puzzleshipping! And also, the way Yami got out of the closet was—**

**Yami: SPOILER ALERT!**

**Ranko: Oh yeah, right. Anyway, thanks for all the awesome reviews, as always. Yuugi, could you do the disclaimer?**

**Yuugi: Sure; Ranko twin does not own anything involving Yu-Gi-Oh or the Forbidden Game series. This is just for fun, she does not gain a profit from writing fanfiction.**

**Ranko: I wish I did. Anyway, enjoy!**

-/-

Jounouchi thought about what Seto said to him as he walked the familiar path to the Game Shop.

"_So you were once in love with the midget?"_

Of course he loved Yuugi, he always loved Yuugi, and he still loved Yuugi. But was he _in_ love with his best friend? He knew that if he truly was, he was certainly over with those feelings. He convinced himself that he was in love with his friend. He had mistaken "in love" with love.

Those kind, innocent eyes. His radiant smile. His childlike frame and smooth, porcelain skin. But that was just the outer image, his heart was just was beautiful as he was. His devotion and loyalty to his friends were strong and he always put others' needs before his own. But he certainly wasn't as innocent and weak as he looked, as Jounouchi had learned in the Game.

No wonder Yami loved the boy so much; who wouldn't?

But was Yami in love with Yuugi or did he just love him? Jounouchi didn't understand, his head started to hurt from all the thinking.

'Let's get this straight,' he told himself. 'When you first met Yuugi, you hated him but at the same time you loved him…just not "in love", right?' I don't even know anymore! Damn you, Kaiba! Why do you have to get inside my head?'

It's true, when Jou first met Yuugi, he loved him, but he hated the feeling of loving someone else. It was so different and new that he didn't understand it. That is what scared him and caused him to push Yuugi away. But when the two became friends, he was no longer afraid of that loving feeling and had mistaken it for being "in love."

And when they played the Game, he thought he would lose Yuugi forever, the only one who bothered to understand him and try and make friends with him even though the blond had been so cruel to Yuugi. He was afraid to lose Yuugi as a friend, as a brother, but never did he once worry about losing Yuugi's love.

He never loved Yuugi like he thought he did. His fear wasn't losing Yuugi as a lover to Yami; it was losing Yuugi, a great and loyal friend, to Yami.

Jounouchi felt a headache coming on.

"Mutt…Mutt? Jounouchi!"

The blond was violently snapped out of his thoughts. He realized that he had stopped walking in the middle of the street and Seto was a couple paces in front of him. The taller man was obviously annoyed but for a moment Jounouchi thought he saw a tinge of worry in the teenager's usually cold blue eyes.

"What is you problem?" Kaiba asked, walking back to Jounouchi.

Jounouchi should have felt insulted, but he didn't. "Nothing, I was just thinking."

Kaiba snorted, yes, that's right, he snorted. "Don't hurt yourself."

It took a moment for Jounouchi to register the comment as an insult and when he did his face turned bright red from either anger or embarrassment. "Hey!"

Seto scoffed and turned sharply on his heel and started to walk away, not waiting for Jounouchi to catch up. "Come on, mutt. Everyone is waiting for us at the Game Shop."

Jounouchi realized that he was about to be left behind again and ran to catch up with the taller man. "Hey, you asshole, wait up!" Without paying attention to his surroundings, Jounouchi bumped into an elderly woman walking down the opposite direction of the street. The collision caused them both to fall; Seto turned around at this and took long strides back.

"You stupid dog," Seto mumbled as Jounouchi quickly got back to his feet and began to help the old woman back up, stuttering out apologies.

The woman was crippled; a twisted wooden cane was the only thing that kept her standing. Her back was hunched and her face was ancient. She was wearing an old cotton dress that woman would have worn in the nineteenth century not the twenty-first.

The woman pointed an old, bony finger at Jounouchi and her eyes widened in disbelief. "You…you boy…" she turned around slowly to look at Seto, having to crane her head back. "And you also…you have seen them. Those from the Other Side."

Jounouchi's breath caught in his throat and he shared a strange look with Seto.

"I have a message for you and your friends."

_At the Game Shop ~_

Honda was pacing around the living room as everyone else that was there sat on the couch. Mai was sitting with Malik and Yuugi on either side of her, she was rubbing Malik's back soothingly and Yuugi was hugging his legs to his chest, resting his head on his knees. Bakura was not there, to everyone's surprise; Malik showed up alone.

No one had heard from Anzu after she had stormed off and everyone was starting to get worried. Yuugi thought of his run in with Soren, literally, and hugged his legs closer until it looked like he was going to fold in on himself.

Seto and Jounouchi were coming but they had no idea how long they would be and where there were, which was setting everyone's anxiety on high.

"Where the hell are they?" Honda asked, continuing to pace.

"Calm down, Honda, there is nothing to worry about," Mai said, mostly for Malik's benefit.

'Nothing to worry about _yet_,' Yuugi thought.

As if on cue, the door to the Game Shop downstairs was opened and the small group heard two pairs of footsteps climb up the stairs to the apartment. Jounouchi and Seto appeared from around the corner and both were surprisingly pale. Yuugi noticed this and shot up, rushing over to the two other boys.

"You'll never believe what happened on our way over here," Jounouchi said, making his way towards the loveseat.

"What?" Yuugi asked, following his friend over.

Seto leaned tiredly against the wall and ran his long fingers through his hair. "Jounouchi literally ran into an old woman and she told us that we have seen 'those from the Other Side.'"

Malik flinched and then leaned on Mai's shoulder.

"She said she had a message for us and our friends," Seto continued. "She said we had the look that we've seen the faery folk."

"Another name for the Shadow Men," Malik said just above a whisper. Seto nodded his head grimly; everyone was listening to the retelling of these events intensely.

"'Some people have the gift of seeing them where everyone else only see a wind in the grass, or a shadow, or a reflection of the light,' she said. 'They are the most beautiful things imaginable; creatures of light and happiness.'"

Yuugi smiled humorlessly at the old woman's description; he tried to fit Yami into the description and failed.

"Then she said, 'The message is: _vanished_. That is what they told me to tell you.' And then she just walked off mumbling something about vowel sounds. It was really strange," Seto finished explaining.

"So we ran over here as fast as we could to tell you guys," Jounouchi said.

'_Vanished_?' Yuugi thought. 'What could that mean?'

As Yuugi was thinking this, Honda went up to Jounouchi and asked, "Did you guys see Anzu at all on your way over here?"

Jounouchi shook his head. "No, why? Is everything okay? Did she get captured?"

"We're not sure," Mai cut in, hearing the hysteria rising in Jounouchi's tone. "None of us have heard from her since she walked off this afternoon. We haven't been able to reach her or anything; her cellphone is turned off."

"What about Bakura?" Seto asked.

"He decided not to come; he's at home," Malik said softly.

"So Yuugi," Jounouchi said. "What did you need to tell us."

Yuugi took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch. "I went looking for Anzu after everyone left, long story short, I couldn't find her. But I did find Soren; I bumped into him and he got really strange. He called Anzu a 'bubbling bimbo' and then he said 'I hope you find Anzu' but the strange thing is I never told him I was looking for her."

"This guy is starting to sound really suspicious." Mai said, her eyes narrowing to slits. Seto nodded his head in agreement. Mai rose to her feet and clenched her fist. "I'm starting to get really tired of this, Soren is popping up a lot lately the same time we learn the Shadow Men are free. I want to meet this Soren guy and straighten this out once and for all."

Mai stormed down the stairs, Honda and Seto right behind her. The other three boys left in the room quickly jumped to their feet and following the group down the stairs and out of the house.

Yuugi ran to catch up with his cousin. "Wait, Mai! We don't even know where Soren is! How are you going to find him?"

Mai's only response was, "Fuck it."

_At the Domino City Park ~_

The group of six walked around the park as children swung on the swings, played in the sandbox and hung on monkey bars as their mothers sat on benches by strollers, chatting with their own friends.

A group of five year olds ran around the grass, playing some kind of game; Yuugi couldn't tell if it was tag or a role-playing game that most children adored. Sitting on one of the benches next to a stroller was Miho.

Mai waved and jogged over to where the woman was sitting, the rest of the group following behind her. "Miho? What are you doing here?" Mai asked.

"I'm babysitting my sister's kid," she explained, pointing to one of the five years playing in the grass. As Mai and Miho talked, Yuugi stared at the little kids as they yelled and shrieked out laughter.

Miho's nephew, a small blue haired child with wide brown eyes was role-playing with a girl about his age. The boy was sitting on the grass and the girl had her coat draped across her shoulders and a bundle of weeds in hand that were mistaken as flowers.

"…Grandma, what big _ears_ you have…" the girl said in mock wonder.

Yuugi's eyes widened; Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.

"…The better to hear you with, my dear…" the young boy said in a high pitched, withering voice as he pretended to be an old woman.

"…Grandma, what big _teeth _you have…"

The little boy grinned goofily and jumped to his feet, curling his fingers like claws and raising them above his head.

"…_The better to EAT you with, my dear!_"

The girl screamed and threw the weeds in the boy's face. The girl ran away giggling, still pretending to be scared as the Miho's nephew started to chase after her.

Yuugi gulped and started to feel dizzy. He remembered when he was in the Game; _he_ was Little Red Riding Hood and Yami was the big bad wolf…and now he was chasing after him.

Miho noticed her nephew creating such a scene and rose to her feet in outrage. "Ryou! Get over here right now!"

The little boy flinched, in fear of his aunt's wrath and stopped chasing the girl, lowering his head in shame.

Everyone visibly flinched, including Mai.

"Excuse me, but is your nephew's name Ryou?" Malik piped in quietly.

Miho nodded and placed her small nephew on her hip after he had trotted over to her. "Yes, that's right. Say 'hi' Ryou."

Ryou hid his face in his aunt's chest and peaked out, smiling softly at the group of teenagers.

Miho giggled. "I'm sorry, he's so painfully shy but he really is a sweet boy."

Yuugi felt a lump forming in his throat; he couldn't breath. He felt tears sting the back of his eyes and took a few steps to reach Ryou. He held out his hand to the child and smiled softly; he tried to blink away the tears but when he did, a single tear rolled down his cheek.

"Hi Ryou, I'm Yuugi, it's nice to meet you."

Ryou looked up at Yuugi and the boy nearly broke down right there; the child's eyes were just like Ryou's. "Hi, Yuugi!" the child said happily, a great big smile breaking out across his face.

Miho laughed. "Well, I guess we should head home now before your mommy bites my head off."

Ryou pouted. "Can't I stay just a bit longer?" he whined. "We're gonna play lambs and monsters."

'That doesn't sound like a fun game,' Yuugi thought.

"What is lambs and monsters?" Honda asked.

"It's like cops and robbers," Jounouchi explained.

"Oh, so how do you play?" Yuugi asked.

Ryou spoke up. "If you're a lamb you hide, and then the monster comes looking for you. And if he tags you, then you're captured and you have to go back to the monster lair. And you have to stay there until another lamb comes and lets you out or you get eaten by the monster but he can't eat you until he's got all the lambs there. Every single one."

Yuugi gulped; that was a more savage take on the game cops and robbers.

Miho rolled her eyes and set her nephew back down on the ground. "Okay, go play." Ryou smiled and ran off to join his friends.

When he reached them Yuugi heard Ryou call, "I'm the monster!"

_Later that day ~_

The group of six decided to split up and search for Anzu or Soren. If anyone were to find either one of them, they were keep them there and call for everyone on their cell phones. Honda went with Jounouchi and Mai went with Seto. That left Malik and Yuugi all alone, walking down a dark street at night with only a few flickering street lights.

This strangely reminded Yuugi of the Game. Malik was the first one that he found when they were playing and they were the ones always together to watch each other's backs from the beginning. It was ironic, considering Malik went out of his way to avoid Yuugi before they played the Game.

They had been searching all day and it was already dark out. Both of them were drained of energy and exhausted from the day's events.

Also, Yuugi couldn't quite pinpoint it, but he felt this ominous presence hovering over him. It was like when you are alone in the house and you think you hear someone breaking in but all the doors and windows are locked.

Yuugi finally had enough.

"Come on, Malik, let's go back."

"Wha—? Yuugi what's wrong?" Malik asked.

"Nothing," Yuugi lied. "Let's go, hurry up!"

A warning was going off in Yuugi's head. A warning from when girls took skin bags to get water, a time when panthers walked in the darkness outside mud huts. When darkness was the greatest danger of all.

Malik was saying something about Yuugi always being the one to go off into bad parts of town, but he could barely hear the blond past the rushing of blood in his ears.

"And look where that got me!" Yuugi snapped. "Come on!"

"Yuugi, I hate to tell you but I can't run in these shoes, they've been hurting me all day and are starting to give me blisters!"

Yuugi looked down at Malik's shoes and saw that they were pinching the boy's feet. "Oh, Malik, why didn't you say anything?" Yuugi asked in dismay. Something made Yuugi jerk his head around to look behind him. Something rustled in the bushes.

_Where everyone else only see a wind in the grass, or a shadow…_

"Malik take your shoes off now!"

"What? Why?"

"Malik, there is something behind us. We have to get out of here fast! Now come on!" Yuugi took Malik's wrist and started pulling the taller boy along as Malik slid his shoes off his feet. Yuugi tried to walk as fast as he could without running. If you run, they will chase you, but how Yuugi wanted to run so badly.

'Don't turn around!' he thought to himself frantically.

Because something was behind them, Yuugi could feel it. It was watching them from the bushes and tracking them. It was making tiny sounds. Yuugi knew that it wanted to hurt them.

It was moving quietly and quickly, keeping pace with them twenty feet back.

"Malik, hurry…" Yuugi pleaded.

Instead, Malik stopped dead. Yuugi could just make out the look of fear on the boy's face.

"Oh, God, there is something behind us!"

The rustling was closer.

"Come on!" Yuugi said, taking Malik's wrist again and dragging him along. Don't run don't run don't run don't run, was hammering in Yuugi's chest like a second heart beat.

It was gaining on them.

Screw it.

"Run!" Yuugi said, taking off with Malik not to far behind him.

That thing was not a person—if it were a person their head would show above the hedges.

Yuugi could see the street to turn on to get to the Game Shop. They were almost there! The two boys pumped their legs faster and sharply cut around the corner. Yuugi could see the Game Shop! The lights were on and he could see Mai's silhouette.

But that thing was still right behind them, just on the other side of the hedge. It was going to go _through _the hedge. Right through it to grab him.

Yuugi tried to find his keys in his jacket pocket but he didn't feel them, he checked his other pocket and the pockets on his jeans.

No keys.

"Yuugi!" Malik screamed. "Get the keys!"

"I can't find them!" Yuugi yelled back hysterically. He finally heard the clattering of keys in his shirt pocket and pulled them out with shaky fingers.

"Hurry, Yuugi!" They were in front of the Game Shop now. "Get it open!"

But it was too late. There was a crashing in the hedge directly behind Yuugi. At the same moment a dark shape reared up from the shadows on the sidewalk in front of him.

Yuugi screamed.

-/-

**Ranko: Yes, I'm ending it there, on a cliffhanger, because I am a bitch! Mwahahahaha!**

**Yami: Oh no, Ranko forgot to take her medicine this morning.**

**Ranko: Shut up Yami, I am not that crazy.**

**Yami&Yuugi: (silence)**

**Ranko: Okay, just a little bit. I love this chapter. There is a little bit of puppyshipping for you. I cried a little bit when I was writing that scene when Yuugi meets little Ryou. And I was literally shaking when I was writing that last scene. I hope you guys like it as much as I do.**

**Yami: You are such a wuss.**

**Ranko: Why are you so mean to me today? You are a little—!**

**Yuugi: (slaps hand over Ranko's mouth) Please review**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ranko: Hello all you lovely readers out there!**

**Yuugi: Ranko? What are you doing? Shouldn't you be preparing for NaNoWriMo?**

**Ranko: Well I couldn't leave all my readers in suspense for long, so I decided that I should update as frequently as I can. And technically I can't start writing my novel until November 1st so everything between now and then is filler.**

**Yami: You were just bored.**

**Ranko: That too! So I should probably answer some reviews, huh?**

**xChaoticDawnx: Thank you so much, your so nice. And I know what you mean, little Ryou was so cute! Your wish will be granted! Please continue to review!**

**raindropdew: You are so awesome and such a nice reviewer too! I know what you mean, Jou needs to get his head out of his arse and realize his feeling already! Thanks for the review!**

**hikari no senshi17: I know I'm mean, I'm sorry, here is an update for you if that will make you feel better.**

**Dinogirl: Thanks so much, you are awesome! I know what you mean about the reincarnation business, but Ryou isn't dead (Yay!) but he technically isn't alive…im confusing myself! That is a scary picture of Yami…that has scarred me for the rest of my life. Thank I try my best. Please continue to review!**

**PomPoms: Oh I'm sorry. I'm here and I bring an update!**

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

Yuugi screamed…or at least got out half a scream. The rest was cut off as something knocked him to the ground. It was the dark figure that was in front of him, and it was shouting something.

"Yuugi, get down!"

Yuugi's brain processed all of this slowly; it almost made him dizzy. There was a dull crashing and a thudding that might have been running, or was that the blood in his ears? Then the crashing stopped.

The small boy was pushing himself to his elbows but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned his head up slowly to see who it was that pushed him out of the way and was greeted by a familiar sight.

"Bakura?"

But the white haired boy wasn't looking at him, he was looking into the darkness of the night to try and make out what exactly that thing was that was chasing him and Malik. Wait…

"Oh, my God! Malik!" Yuugi nearly jumped to his feet but Bakura still had a firm hand on his shoulder keeping him down on his side.

"Stay down until I see if it's gone; Malik's fine," Bakura said. Suddenly, the back door to the Game Shop burst open; the light was spilling out from inside and the small group of friends came rushing out to see what the commotion was. That would have scared off that thing if it were still there.

Mai was the first one out and quickly analyzed the situation. She saw her cousin pinned to the ground under Bakura and Malik a short distance away without his shoes on and looking like he had just seen a ghost.

Yep, definitely a bad situation.

"Yuugi!" Mai cried, rushing over to her cousin. Bakura swiped his hand away before the older, more protective woman bit it off. The blond woman patted down her cousin and checked him for injuries. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Yuugi opened his mouth to speak and then snapped it shut again; what did happen? Yuugi didn't even know.

"Yuugi and Malik were chased by someone, or something," Bakura answered for the smaller boy. "I'm not sure what it was, I didn't really see it, but I did _hear_ it and then I—"

"—knocked me down," Yuugi finished, a hint of irritation in his voice. "What about you, Malik?"

Everyone stared at the blond who was sitting there, completely unnoticed until that moment. After a few seconds of silence, Malik shook his head slowly. "N-no, I didn't see anything, I was too busy trying to get the door open."

Yuugi stared at the keys that were still clutched tightly in his hands and wondered why Malik would try and get the door open if he knew it was hopeless.

Those thoughts were quickly forgotten when Mai asked her next question. "Do you know what it could have been?"

"It wasn't a person," Bakura answered in a low voice. "I think—"

"Hey, what's that?" Jounouchi asked, pointing to something down the street under a street light.

It was a dog.

It was a black lab; black enough to blend into the night—or the hedges. It stared at the group curiously and then started wagging its tail furiously.

'The rusting in the bushes,' Yuugi thought. 'The tail wagging and the panting breath.'

"Dog breath," Yuugi whispered aloud; relief was clear in his voice.

Malik nearly sobbed in relief but what came out was a watery chuckle. "Oh God; Oh my, God!"

Bakura huffed and said, "That was a waste of my time! A stupid dog for God's sake! Damn it!"

Malik spun around to face Bakura; he gave him a nasty look and put his hands on his hips. "Where have you been all day, Bakura? Do have any idea what all of us have been through!"

Bakura snarled and clenched his fist at his sides. "You told me to stay away from you, didn't you? That's what you said!"

"Wait a minute!" Mai cried over the yelling between the two teens. "What the hell is going on?"

Bakura was speechless for a moment and then looked down at his feet. "Nothing," he mumbled.

"_Nothing_?" Malik fumed. "Bullshit! You've been avoiding us all day! What the hell are we supposed to think?"

"What is going on?" Honda asked, completely lost.

Bakura shook his head and without looking up, said, "I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't want to talk about it?" Malik cried, near tears at this point. "God, Bakura! I understand that your sad because you lost Ryou, but you've completely changed! I'm your best friend and I love you—"

"Wait, what?" everyone shouted nearly simultaneously.

Bakura and Malik ignored them. Bakura looked up and his eyes were narrowed into slits. "I'm not the one who's changed Malik, you have. Before we played the Game, you were this strong, independent guy that was my best friend. You were someone that I knew would always be supportive even if I did something stupid. But now you're just this complete, jumpy, scared wreck that is always looking over his shoulder for Shadow Men!"

Everyone gaped at Bakura's outburst.

"I don't even know who you are anymore! You're just some weak, stuttering mess; you are not the same Malik that I have known for years, you are not my best friend," Bakura finished. He turned on his heel and started walked away. "I'm going home."

Malik sunk to his knees; his eyes were hollow and lifeless. He was shaking violently and hugged himself tightly; tears were starting to collect in his eyes. "Oh God," he sobbed. "Oh God, I want to die. It feels like I'm dying."

Yuugi went over to Malik and hugged him, rubbing his back in a comforting manner.

A gust of wind blew past them and Mai shivered. "Come on, let's get back inside."

Yuugi half led, half carried Malik inside the Game Shop and up the stairs to the apartment.

Once everyone was inside, Yuugi and Mai assigned everyone a room to sleep in during their stay. Seto and Honda had to sleep on the floor because there weren't enough beds and the two boys refused to share a bed with anyone else.

Everyone put on their sleepwear and tried to loosen the tension in the room by watching a few comedies in the living room. Mai and Yuugi stayed in Yuugi's bedroom, where he and Malik were going to sleep. Yuugi curled up against his cousin's side and sighed.

"Everything is changing, Mai."

The woman rubbed her cousin's back. "I know, hun."

Suddenly the phone rang from the kitchen. Mai moved to pick it up, but Yuugi stopped her and hopped to his feet. "I've got it."

Yuugi walked out of his room and across the living room to get to the kitchen. Everyone was watching the movie with bleary eyes; no one seemed to be paying attention. Yuugi shook his head and ran into the kitchen before the phone stopped ringing. He picked it up right in time and answered.

"Hello?"

_Shhshhshhshhshhshhshhshhshhs hh._

A shiver ran up Yuugi's spine and sent off warning bells in his head.

The shushing noise went on, but over it was a whispering.

"_A…ishhshhshht._"

"Can you guys turn the TV down?" Yuugi called into the living room; his response was the decrease in volume of Adam Sandler's loud voice.

The breathy whisper was in Yuugi's ear and the physical voice was in his head: _Vanished…_

"_Van-ishhshhshhshhed,_" the voice whispered.

Yuugi clutched the phone until his fingers hurt and his knuckled turned white. "Who is this?" he asked harshly into the receiver.

The voice sounded like a man's, and it had a distorted quality to it that went beyond foreign. The word _sounded_ like _vanished_, but…

The phone clicked, and then there was a dial tone.

Mai was in the doorway, staring at her cousin with worried eyes. "Who was it, Yuugi?" She was suddenly standing in front of him, her hands cupping his face. "Are you okay? You look pale."

Yuugi swatted her hands away and put on a fake smile. "It's nothing; I'm fine, just really tired. I think I'm going to go to bed." He walked past Mai quickly, he barely heard her say goodnight to him.

He closed his bedroom door behind him and flicked off the lights before falling onto his bed. He pulled the covers over his head and curled himself into a tight ball. Soon everyone went to bed too and the house was quiet. Yuugi heard Malik approaching his room and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep.

The door creaked open a crack and then swung open fully, light flooding into the dark room.

"Yuugi?" Malik asked quietly. "Are you awake?"

Yuugi didn't answer.

He heard Malik sigh and then say, "Alright then." The blond then laid down on the sleeping bag and was soon asleep.

Yuugi felt bad. Malik wanted to sleep with Yuugi in his bed because he was scared. After all of the day's events, it had shaken Malik up pretty bad. And what happened that night with Bakura didn't help things either.

Yuugi laid there for a long time, just listening to Malik's even breathing, signifying that he was asleep. Yuugi just couldn't relax enough to go to sleep.

It was the phone call, he just knew it.

Without thinking, Yuugi carefully climbed out of bed without making a noise. He stepped over Malik's sleeping body and climbed onto his desk. He slowly opened his skylight window and flinched when it made a terrible squeaking sound. Yuugi looked over his shoulder to see if Malik woke up but the boy still slept soundly.

Yuugi silently sighed in relief and climbed out of the window and onto the roof. It was chilly up on the roof, but the crispness of the air and the icy wind helped to clear Yuugi's mind.

It had been a long day. He couldn't believe that going to the police department and finding out the Shadow Men were free, to running in to Soren, and then the incident in the park, and then what happened with Bakura only a few hours ago all happened in one day.

It felt like a lifetime.

Yuugi didn't know why, but up here, where he was exposed to all eyes, where he could see the bright lights of the city, was where he felt safest. Safe from the Shadow Men, the Game, and all the emotional baggage his friends carried. This is where he felt like he was untouchable.

Yuugi rose to his feet and spread his arms out wide as a gust of wind blew past him. His baggy clothes fluttered around his tiny body and his bangs smacked his face.

Here, he wasn't afraid of Yami.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?"

Scratch that.

Yuugi's breath caught in his throat and his blood ran cold, like ice in his veins. He didn't want to turn around, he didn't want to face _him_. This was his safe place, _he_ wasn't aloud here. Why was he here?

Ignoring his mind's warning, his body disobeyed and turned around. It was like everything was in slow motion. And then the two were facing each other like that day in the game shop when Yuugi first met _him_.

The gothic punk. The cute salesman. The boy with the predator gleam in his eyes. The mysterious boy that sold him the Game. The one who said, "At nine."

Yami.

Yuugi nearly screamed but he didn't have any breath to do it. He was afraid that he would fall off the roof but he knew that even he wasn't that clumsy.

Yami looked exactly like he did when Yuugi first met him at the game shop. All leather and, of course, good looking; Yuugi couldn't deny that fact. He was smirking and had a hand resting on his hip. He had that predatorily gleam in his eyes that made Yuugi want to run and hide.

Finally, he found his voice.

"Yami? Wha-what are you…?"

"Surprised?" he asked, taking a step towards Yuugi. "You should be considering that you trapped me in that damn closet."

"H-how did you get out?" Yuugi cursed himself for stuttering.

Yami was now in front of him, their chests nearly touching. Yuugi thought that he might fall off the edge, but Yami held the boy's thin biceps.

"Those two imbeciles played the game and somehow made it to your parents' basement and released me. I thanked them by killing them both."

Yuugi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Who…?" But Yuugi didn't even have to complete that thought he knew exactly who Yami was talking about.

"Y-you killed Haga and Ryuzaki?" Yuugi asked, his eyes widening in horror. He shouldn't be surprised, Yami did kill Ryou but Haga and Ryuzaki were just innocent bystanders; they had nothing to do with Yuugi or the Game. "You monster," he spit out.

Yami smirked and licked his lips. "If that's what it takes to be with you, my little one."

Yuugi cringed and it felt like bugs were crawling over his skin. "I will never give myself to you! Do you understand? I would rather die than let you have me."

Yami's smirked stretched wider across his face. "But my love, you already do."

"Wha—?" Before Yuugi could finish that sentence, he felt cool metal against the skin of his finger. He looked down and gasped in shock. Sitting peacefully on his left ring finger was the gold band that Yami gave to him at the end of the Game. He still remembered the engraving on the inside of the band.

_All I refuse & And thee I chuse_

Yuugi looked back up at Yami; horror was clear on the younger boy's face. He tried tugging on the ring but it wouldn't budge. "It won't come off!"

Yami's eyes glowed red in the night and he was grinning. He released Yuugi and the boy went falling from the roof.

"Game start."

Yuugi awoke with a start; he was sweating and his whole body was shaking. He shot up in bed and clutched his sheets to his chest, feeling horribly exposed.

"It was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was just a dream…" Yuugi repeated like a mantra, rocking back and forth on his bed.

He looked at his left hand and saw the gold band glittering in the low light.

Nope, definitely not a dream.

The phone rang from the kitchen, making Yuugi nearly jump ten feet in the air. He checked his clock and saw that it was only three in the morning. He checked if Malik was awake and saw the boy sleeping soundly. Yuugi got up on shaky legs and walked across the dark house to answer the phone.

"H-hello?"

"_A…isht…_"

Yuugi froze and he started shaking again; he was afraid that his legs wouldn't support him so he sat down at the kitchen table.

"_A…isht…_"

Yuugi wanted to speak, but he couldn't; it was impossible to.

"_A…isht…_"

'Damaged,' Yuugi guessed. No, that wasn't right. What was the voice saying? A-isht. Am-ish. Amished.

Yuugi froze; he couldn't breathe. "Oh God," he whispered.

It wasn't _vanished_. It sounded like _vanished_ but it was something completely different.

"_And then she just wondered off mumbling something about vowel sounds."_

It wasn't _vanished_, not at all, it was something much more sinister and evil. And that damn voice wouldn't stop whispering it!

Yuugi threw the phone as hard as he could across the room and ran to his room to hide under the covers.

_Famished._

That is what that damn voice was saying.

_Famished._

The eyes in the closet. The Shadow Men. They were _famished_.

Those evil, ravenous eyes…

The better to _eat_ you with, my dear.

-/-

**Ranko: And cut! I know you guys are going to love this chapter! I can feel it in my bones! I was so excited about this chapter I wrote it in a day!**

**Yami: Uh-oh…Ranko is using a lot of exclamation points, that means that she's had caffeine.**

**Yuugi: We hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and make sure to leave long reviews! Ranko needs some support right now with her going into NaNoWriMo.**

**Yami: Review!**

**Ranko: For Sparta!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Yami: Ranko, you liar!**

**Ranko: What? What did I do? And who said you could be the first one to speak in the introduction?**

**Yami: You said two chapters ago that you wouldn't be able to update and here we are two chapter later! Are you stringing your readers along?**

**Ranko: Of course not! I just misjudged my time, I don't know how many more times I'll be able to update before November!**

**Yami: Whatever you say.**

**Ranko: Oh, you wanna go? Come at me, bro!**

**Yuugi: Ranko, calm down! Can we please just answer reviews?**

**Ranko: Sorry, I guess I've been hanging out with my wannabe gangster friends too long. (holds up list of reviews) I'm so happy and the amount of reviews I got! You guys rock, and all of you are so supportive!**

**hikari no senshi17: I'm glad that you liked the chapter so much and I'm happy that I didn't disappoint. I'm glad that I could update again, and I hope that this update will last you until the end of November if I don't get another chance to update.**

**Doragon-chan: You're telling me.**

**Magi Magi Magician Girl: Your new username sure is a bit to write down now, but what can you do? :) Anyway, I laughed when I got your review because I couldn't help but hear my friends' voices in my head saying "I told you so…" They love to mess with me, the bastards. And answer to your questions (in order): maybe, Ryou is alive but dead (its complicated -_-), and Bakura is just Bakura, he's a bitch.**

**Dinogirl: You are such a nice reviewer! Two reviews for one chapter! (gives you hug) This is for both of your reviews. I know what you mean, Yuugi's misery is our beloved puzzleshipping moments! Your just make me feel so loved! And you don't have to worry about scarring me, I am related to Yami and Yuugi after all (jk). ;) Anyway, I'm glad I could bring you joy with that one "safe place" bit, Yuugi wasn't happy with me. And here's something for you fangirl mind: that wasn't a dream ;)**

**raindropdew: I know, right? ;)**

**Ceaselessfall: Yeah, Yami is a bit nutso in this story O_O**

**cashirecat1: Breath! Don't die! Stop coughing! Anyway, I'm glad you like the chapter so much. And I understand your madness! We're all mad here, embrace it! I'm probably just as crazy as you. Ranko twin out!**

**ansolorio1204: Your review made me so happy! I'm glad that one person was inspired to read the actual Forbidden Game books, cause that's how I got hooked :) Anyway, thanks so much, I wish you luck on whatever your doing for NaNoWriMo!**

**xChaoticDawnx: I know what you mean, I love season 0 Yami! Everyone hates that season but I think it's not that bad. **

**naomi: Thank you so much!**

**PomPoms: Thanks so much, I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter!**

**Shaliza's Scarab: I know, what happened to Malik is horrible :( Thank you for the support and I'll try my best to keep everyone posted!**

**Yuugi: That was a lot of reviews…**

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

Malik lied.

That night, when he and Yuugi were attacked by that thing, he lied. He told Bakura and everyone else that he hadn't seen that beast that attacked the two boys. But the truth is that he did; Malik did see that thing. But maybe it was for the best that everyone thought it was dog. A dog was just a dog, it wasn't _him_; a dog wasn't that beast Malik saw.

The thing was the size of a large wolf but a small bear. It was wretched and beastly, and what Malik saw hidden in the shadows of the shrub, was _him_…

Marik.

And the two made eye contact for a quick moment, nearly nonexistent. And the way that Marik looked at him, that smug satisfaction in his eyes, was almost like him telling Malik, "I told you I'd find you."

So yes, it is better that all of his friends thought it was just a dog. It was for the best that no one knew.

Malik was half awake and half asleep when he heard the bedroom door open and then close again. He heard the sound of someone trying to be too quiet and then the creaking of the bed springs as a tiny body settled on the bed. Then all movement stopped and there was harsh breathing.

'That's it,' Malik thought, groggily clearing himself of the small haze of sleep still clouding his mind. He pushed himself up slowly, feeling his joints and muscles realign themselves after the uncomfortable sleep on the floor. He rubbed his tired eyes, trying to clear the blurriness of the night and his temporary blindness.

The boy sighed-slash-yawned and grabbed his glasses from the floor beside him, too lazy to put his contacts in. Everything cleared quite a bit and Malik saw a familiar form curled up in a tight ball on the bed. The form was shaking like an animal and he realized that that must be where the harsh breathing sound was coming from.

Malik realized with a jolt that that form was Yuugi. He jumped to his feet and flicked on the bedside lamp. Both boys blinked rapidly, their eyes trying to adjust to the sudden harsh light.

Yuugi's eyes were bloodshot but there was no evidence that he had been crying. His knuckles were white, clutching the fabric of his pajamas like a lifeline.

"Yuugi, what's wrong? What's the matter?" Malik asked, concern lacing his voice.

"Uh, nothing," Yuugi replied lamely. It was obviously nothing, Yuugi nearly looked as worse as Malik when they went to the police station.

"Then what's…" Malik trailed off when he noticed a glint of gold on Yuugi's finger. "What's that?" Malik asked, already knowing the answer.

Yuugi looked down, wondering what had caught Malik's attention and gasped. The boy looked like he was about to start crying. Malik looked at the ring more closely; it was just a simple gold circlet, there was no design or stones, but Malik recognized it. Malik knew what he would find if he were to look on the inside of the ring.

"Oh God," Malik breathed out. "Mai!" Malik yelled, waking the whole house.

Soon everyone was crowded together in Yuugi's room, their hair in a disarray and their sleep clothes wrinkled. Malik gave a long, hysterical explanation and then Yuugi retold his dream to everyone and then the events taking place after he woke up.

Seto furrowed his eyebrows. "It was probably that psychic," he said promptly.

"Why is that always your response to everything?" Jounouchi snapped. "Trying to disprove the obvious facts?"

"Shut up, you two," Mai snapped. "We're all tired and stressed to the max. That is probably causing us to see and hear things that aren't really there."

"Like that dog?" Honda asked. Malik flinched slightly but it was ignored.

"Yes, like the dog," Mai confirmed.

"The calls weren't hallucinations," Yuugi said, his voice surprising steady. "It could have been a dream, but I seriously doubt that."

Jounouchi shrugged. "Who knows the difference between dreams and reality anymore?"

Honda elbowed the blond in the ribs. "You're not helping," he muttered.

Mai shook her head. "I'm not saying the phone calls were hallucinations, but maybe the voice you heard was. You didn't hear the word _vanished_ in the static until you were told the word, right?"

Yuugi nodded, it did make sense. "I know I heard _famished_ though."

Mai sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose; she became irritable and impatient when she didn't get enough sleep, so that could be why she was fighting with Yuugi on this. "Okay, sweetie, you think whatever you want, just please, talk to me in the morning when I am more awake."

Everyone started to file out of the room, one by one, only Jounouchi stayed with his friend. He sat down beside Yuugi and squeezed his shoulder. "Are you okay, Yuugi?"

Yuugi nodded. "I'm fine, Jounouchi; nothing is wrong with me. I know I heard _famished_," the boy said desperately.

Jou sighed. "Yuugi, we're all really tired, are you sure that you didn't just hear things? You could have dreamt it up after that last weird phone call."

Yuugi shook his head. "No, that's impossible, it was _real_. I heard it. And what about meeting Yami on the roof, I _know_ that was real," he said, waving the hand with the ring on it in front of Jounouchi's face to emphasize his point.

Jounouchi took the small hand and put it back on Yuugi's lap. "I have no doubt in my mind that Yami did appear to you on the roof, there is no way to disprove that. But don't you think that with all of the added stress and the incident on the roof that the phone call could have just been a delusion of your mind."

Yuugi stared at his friend in disbelief for a moment. He truly didn't believe Yuugi. Jounouchi must have noticed the look of hurt on his friend's face. "Yuugi, please, we're all tired, I think you just need to rest and all of us will talk about this in the morning."

Yuugi silently nodded, keeping his lips sealed as he felt the overwhelming urge to scream and cry at the same time. Jounouchi smiled weakly and gave his friend a half hug before getting up and going back to bed.

After Jounouchi left, Malik took the blond's place next to Yuugi. He took Yuugi's left hand which had the ring on it and started playing with the gold. He tugged and just as Yuugi had figured out, the ring would not come off. Malik's eyes widened and without missing a beat, he hugged the smaller boy. No words were needed, just the presence of another person.

"I believe you," Malik mumbled as he and Yuugi drifted off to sleep on the boy's bed.

Unknown to any one else in the house, Mai was down the hall in her room typing away on her laptop. She was recording all the days events, including what had just happened in Yuugi's room.

It wasn't that she didn't believe her cousin, she did actually, it was just so much to take in. After what Yuugi had told her about what happened on the roof, she wanted to find Yami and beat him, like she should have done in the Game but she was too much of a coward to do so.

So she recorded all of her thoughts and events that went on her life so she could keep track of everything. It was comforting.

She was in typing Yuugi's name when the _Y_ key got stuck. She had barely touched it with her right index finger, but the _Y_s went on and on across the line. They got to the right margin and went on; got to the edge of the screen and went on.

The screen scanned right and the rest of Mai's document moved jerkily to the left, disappearing. She stared in horror, Mai's first thought being that she broke the computer. Now her eyes widened as the _Y_s went on without end. They just kept going. The letters didn't even fall down to the next line.

The letters hit the end of the screen and then ebbing back as the screen scanned right, then surging to the edge again.

Mai continued to press Escape but that didn't work. Next she tapped at the Enter to put in a hard return, to break the line. Nothing happened.

Mai tried every key that would stop the long line of letters. Biting her lower lip, she next tried Control/Alt/Delete; that should reboot the computer.

Nothing.

The _Y_s continued.

Next, Mai went for the power button on her laptop and held it down, pressing it until the tip of her finger turned white. That should have shut down the computer completely, but still nothing happened.

Mai stared wide eyed and gaped. This was unbelievable.

Mai pulled the charger out of the computer and tossed it to the ground. When Mai first got her laptop, she would keep it on the charger for too long so now her computer lived off of it. It would die and unable to work again without it.

Still, the _Y_s sailed on.

Then everything happened so fast, there was a flash of light and the monitor went black. Mai sighed in relief. She may never be able to use her laptop again but at least that was over.

Then something made Mai's breath catch in her throat. A noise that made her blood run cold in her veins, sending a shiver up her spine; warning bells went off in Mai's head.

A moving sound, like a rope being dragged. Like something sliding across the floor. It was something underneath her bed. And it was crawling out…towards her. Mai quickly pulled her feet up onto her bed and leaned over the edge to see what it was.

She didn't want poke her head out to far, in fear of whatever might be there.

There was a hiss and then a glow of yellowish green. Mai shrieked and darted across the room to flick to light on.

She dropped to the floor and looked under the bed. The woman sighed in relief as she realized that it was just the charger cable the she had tossed on the floor and the battery's light showing that her laptop was unable to use.

Nothing to worry about…right?

_Elsewhere ~_

As Jounouchi walked down the hall back to the guest room, he felt the strange feeling of being watched. He stopped in the middle of the dark hall and swiveled around. There was nothing there but more darkness.

Of course there was nothing there, Jounouchi sighed in relief and continued to walking down the hall to his temporary room. It was just an empty hall, no windows, there was no way he could be peeked on.

So why did he feel so uneasy.

Meanwhile, Seto was sleeping on the floor of the guest room. Though, he wasn't sleeping, he couldn't sleep. He couldn't close his eyes and drift off. Too much was happening. He squeezed his eyes shut once again and sighed when he couldn't relax.

He rolled onto his back and popped his eyes open. He came face to face with a pair of yellow, cat like eyes. He shouted in surprise and his whole body jerked; he struck out at whatever the thing was. He shut up and fumbled for the lamp.

Light illuminated the room the same time Honda jerked awake as well. The brunet and sat up and was breathing raggedly.

Seto realized, slightly relieved and horrified, that it was only he and Honda in the room. Nothing with cat like eyes.

The two boys shared a terrified look as they realized what had just happened.

They were being stalked.

"I had a dream…" Honda said; he gulped. "Something was hanging over my head, watching me from the wall; it was looking at me _through_ the wall," he corrected.

Seto nodded, not bothering to recount what he had experienced. There was no need.

This must be what Yuugi always felt.

Meanwhile, across town, in Bakura's home, he was experiencing something similar to everyone else.

He was sleeping restlessly, tossing and turning in his bed. He was huffing from exertion and his body was gleaming with sweat. His eyes were screwed shut, his legs tangled in the mess of his sheets, and his hands clenched and unclenched.

Finally, the restless boy calmed and laid still as he felt warm hands on his chest in his dreams. There was a vision of white and the sound of beautiful laughter.

"_Bakura!"_

But that voice didn't match the beautiful image. The voice was mingled with pain and desperation. The voice was pleading and scared.

"_Help me!"_

Bakura awoke with a start. He quickly sat up in bad and grasped for the mirage before it disappeared.

"Ryou!" he cried, trying to catch the ghost of the boy before he left him again; he _couldn't _leave him again. But it was no use; Bakura hugged himself tightly and sobbed.

_Elsewhere ~_

"Nightmares are a beautiful thing, aren't they?" Yami asked as he stared up at the starry sky and full moon. He stood on Domino docks, the night sky reflected on the clear water. The man closed his eyes and breathed in the crisp night air mixed with the salty sea air. He looked over her shoulder to another boy standing there lifelessly, just watching him.

"Don't you agree?" Yami asked again, a false, misleading smile on his lips. Yami didn't smile, he only smirked and grinned. The boy with piercing green eyes stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the full moon with Yami, his black hair shining.

"Soren?"

The boy's eyes which were usually as bright and luminous as emeralds had lost all of their luster and light. They were blank and lifeless, with a sheen of ruby coloring. "Yes, Yami, I agree."

Yami smirked and then turned back around to look up at the night sky. He reached up, as if he could reach the moon. "They say that eyes are windows to the soul and dreams are a way to show someone's true desires. But what does that leave for nightmares?" Yami clenched his fist. "Are nightmares a way to show people what they really want through their fears?"

"Yes, Yami, I agree."

Yami scowled and his hand dropped to his side, his hand still clenched into a fist. He walked up to the tall boy and slapped him across the face. "You useless boy."

"Yes, Yami, I agree."

Yami kneed him in the gut and Soren fell to his knees. "Enough of this, the Game is about to begin and soon you will be of no more use to me. But not yet, first we have to set it up and wait for the opportune time to strike."

Soren looked up at Yami through his bangs. His eyes cleared and he scowled up at Yami. "Bastard," he mumbled, spitting on the docks; Yami chose to ignore the comment. Soren hated the man standing over him. He possessed him, he was using him, and he was going to hurt the person he cared about: Yuugi. But he couldn't do anything, he was powerless against Yami. At least the son of a bitch had his own body now so he didn't have to take Soren's over when he had to do his dirty work.

Yami looked back up at the night sky. "Prepare yourself, Yuugi, the new Game will soon begin."

Marik and Akefia came up behind Soren, flanking the boy, who was still on his knees. Crouching at Marik's side was what looked like a large wolf but a small bear and a large, thick snake wound up Akefia's arm and rested its head on the man's shoulder, hissing softly; it had yellow green eyes.

"Ready or not, here I come."

-/-

**Ranko: And cut! I am sure this is not what you guys expected and I apologize. I hope I didn't bore you guys to death and I'm sorry that this chapter is shorter. Thanks for being so supportive guys and continuing to read.**

**Yami: You're so sappy, Ranko.**

**Ranko: Shut up! This update may actually be my last before November!**

**Yuugi: It's going to be okay, Ranko. **

**Ranko: Thanks guys and I'll see you next time! Please make sure to give me nice, long reviews!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ranko: Guess who's back? Hey guys! It's been a while! It feels a little weird being back…**

**Yuugi: Ranko! (glomps Ranko)**

**Yami: Ranko, welcome back, so I'm guessing that you're done with your novel.**

**Ranko: Actually, no. But I have won NaNoWriMo, I made my word goal but I'm not done with it yet, I still have to finish it and edit. Oh editing…(shudders)**

**Yuugi: We missed you!**

**Ranko: I missed you too! All of you, I've just been thinking about you guys all the time and so many people have been so supportive in their reviews since I've been gone! You guys are so nice that I just have to answer all of them! (holds up list)**

**Yami: Damn, that's a lot.**

**raindropdew: Thank you so much! It is good to know that my work is appreciated and honestly, last chapter was not my best, I'm kind of ashamed. Thank you anyway and please keep reviewing!**

**Pharaoh Silver: Hey, hey, hey, its Ranko twin! I'm back too! Yeah, buddy! Anyway, ahem, thank you for the awesome review, it really helped me get off my lazy butt and continue again. You're awesome! Please continue to review.**

**cashirecat1: Thank you so much, you're review made me laugh; it was awesome! I know, Kaiba and Jou need to pull their heads out of their own asses and make up, but hey? What are you going to do? Yeah, Soren does need help and of course Yuugi being our little hero will rescue him, and Yami isn't that bad, just misunderstood. And I miss Ryou too but you're right, then there would be no story. Also, spelled "asylum," so close. Thanks for the review, please continue to read and be supportive!**

**Magi Magi Magician Gal: Phew, I'm really glad I'm not boring anyone, you have no idea. If you are confused, please feel free to ask in your review; I don't bite…too hard, totally kidding! (Yuugi: L-O-L! Ranko is teaching me how to text!) I don't want you lovely readers to be lost in this story. Also, I'm not upset or anything, I actually also found the Barbie plots to be good potential stories. I thought, "If Magi Magi doesn't do this then I will!" The only think I would probably change is not having Yami and Atem sing, I couldn't stop laughing! Thanks for the review!**

**xChaoticDawnx: I know what you mean! Season 0 Yami is amazing! Anyway, I'm glad that I had such great timing with your birthday and everything! Happy late birthday now! The scene with Mai was also really creepy, I was writing that at night. And poor Bakura! Thanks for the review!**

**Doragon-chan: I was thinking more along the lines of hide-and-seek.**

**hikari no senshi17: I know, it would make more sense if Marik was the one controlling them but Yami is the puppeteer in this show, Marik is just a side kick in a way. Thanks for the support and please continue to review!**

**Oh**

**naomi: I try.**

**Dinogirl: Yeah, we puzzleshippers live off of angst don't we? And poor little Yuugi, no one understands him. Thank you, NaNoWriMo was very fun but its good to be back! Thanks for the review!**

**Atem: Thank you so much!**

**Tyrant Dragon Knight: Thank you so much! That makes me feel so good about my writing! And Yami/Atem is awesome! Whether he's insane or not! Thank you and I think it did turn out great!**

**SokiKuro: I've been looking forward to answering your review! Long story short, you made me feel so love and I felt so confident in my writing ability, I'm glad to know my work is appreciated. You are just so awesome! And I'm glad you read the Forbidden Games and I loved Julian and Jenny together so don't feel bad! I just smiled every time I read your review! Thank you so much!**

**Guest: Oh my, goodness. You are amazing and thank you for the awesome review!**

**Epona1995: I am so happy that I could "woah" you and you just made me feel so loved! Thanks for the awesome review!**

**Daemon Luciel: Thank you and please continue to review!**

**AmerillaRose: Thanks for the support and please continue to review!**

**Ranko: Answering all of those review probably wasn't my best idea, it was a lot.**

**Yami: I told you…**

**Yuugi: Ranko twin does not own anything related to Yu-Gi-Oh or the Forbidden Games.**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

Yuugi woke up the next morning with a feeling that he didn't get enough sleep. When he pulled his arm out from beneath his comforter, he immediately tucked it back under in the warmth of his bed. His bed was so warm and outside of it was cold…he needed more sleep. Maybe if he pretended to be asleep forever then that would mean he didn't have to worry about the Shadow Men and Soren.

He knew that would never happen. They would simply haunt him in his sleep. After staying in bed for a few more moments, Yuugi sat up, groaning as his bed springs creaked under his weight. He pushed himself to his feet and stretched, shivering from the early morning chill. He was half tempted to duck under his covers again.

Yuugi didn't even bother to change out of his pajamas, he just entered the living room the way he was, not caring about his appearance. Everyone else was already up and awake and judging by their state of dress, no one was going to school today either. Mai, Seto and Honda had mugs of coffee in their hands.

Jounouchi sat on the loveseat with Honda, Seto sitting on the leather footstool next to them. Malik huddled on the couch next to Mai for warmth; obviously the chill was affecting him as well.

Everyone looked very tired and completely worn out. It was sad that they had been reduced to this state. Heavy bags were under everyone's dull eyes from lack of sleep and Mai's nails were chewed. Jounouchi and Malik's hair fell in greasy clumps. Honda and Seto were worse for wear. Yuugi probably didn't look that appealing either.

"Good morning, Yuugi," Mai greeted wearily, barely moving her head to look at him. Yuugi raised an eyebrow and took a seat on the individual plush chair that was across from Jou and Honda.

"Good morning," he said back. "What's wrong with everyone?" Yuugi asked.

"You mean besides the usual?" Jou asked crudely.

"No one could sleep," Mai said, deciding to ignore Jounouchi's comment. "Something weird happened to me last night, I don't even know what it was. But it seems like the rest of us had similar problems."

"I dreamt that I was being watched while I slept," Honda said, shuddering slightly and taking a sip from his coffee.

"Yeah, same here," Seto said grimly, his icy blue eyes were dull.

"I told you, it's because of Yami!" Yuugi exclaimed. "The Shadow Men are back and they are out! I saw Yami last night and I heard _famished_ on the phone! Why don't you believe me?" Yuugi cried, generally upset.

Every exchanged looks; they weren't very surprised by Yuugi's outburst. "At this point, hun, its getting hard not to believe you," Mai said.

"So what are we going to do? We always sit here and talk but we never put things into action. Its time to do that!" Jou said defiantly.

"First we find Soren," Mai answered immediately. "Since he lives down town where you live Jounouchi, you're in charge of finding him."

"Why me?" the boy whined.

"You're the one who wanted to get into action," Mai answered. "Honda, you go with him."

The brunet gaped. "But I didn't say anything! Honestly, I would rather just sit here and not run into any Shadow Men."

"But you know the area better," Mai said logically.

"Fine, I'll do it, but I won't like it," Honda said, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting.

"That's what most of my dates say, you'll get over it," Mai said in annoyance.

Malik's cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked the caller I.D. before answering it. "Hello?" he greeted before walking out of the room to talk in private.

"Meanwhile, Malik, Yuugi and Seto will be looking for Anzu. She is still missing and she could be hurt," Mai said. Honda flinched at Mai's words.

"What are you going to be doing?" Seto asked Mai, drinking from his mug.

"I'll be at the police station with Miho; we'll be digging into Haga and Ryuzaki's death a little bit more."

At that moment, Malik came back in the room, looking like he was about to be sick. His pallor was pale and clammy, his eyes wide and frightened, and his whole body shaking violently. "Malik?" Yuugi asked, getting up and holding his friend's arms to keep him steady. "What's wrong? Who was that on the phone?"

"That was Bakura's dad," was his short and quiet response.

"What did he have to say?" Jounouchi asked from his seat.

"Bakura wasn't in his room when he went to check on him this morning," Malik continued. "He doesn't know where he went; Bakura's gone."

_Elsewhere ~_

Bakura slid down the mud slopes of the Domino Forest, following the path the police took the previous day to Haga and Ryuzaki's dead bodies. He looked down at the files he had swiped from Miho's desk while she wasn't looking. It looks like the bodies and the Game was found by the creek. Bakura looked back up to see where he was; it was just up ahead.

Bakura had decided to go check out the scene of the crime himself to see if he could find anything that the police might have missed. He stopped for a moment and shuffled through the files to the pictures of the boys' dead bodies. The way their bodies were mangled had to be caused by something, or someone.

He couldn't tell Yuugi and the rest of the gang because he knew that they would want to join and be a part of his group of merry men. They would be like little detectives and at the moment, Bakura couldn't be a babysitter to them right now; he was on a mission. If he found the Shadow Men, he would find the Game. And if Bakura found the Game, he found Ryou.

Then Bakura would rescue him and the whole incident between he and Malik would just be a thing of the past…right?

Bakura shook his head to clear himself of those thoughts and grabbed a hanging tree branch to balance him before he fell down the slope.

Besides, his friends were safe at school; but after everything that has happened, Bakura wasn't sure if that was the safest place to be at the moment too. He remembered Soren; the kid knew too much and Bakura had a funny feeling about him. When the two had a fight, Bakura saw this strange, dull look in Soren's eyes; it was almost like he was possessed and had no control over himself—a robot.

Bakura growled just at the thought of the kid with emerald eyes. He knew about the Game, he knew what happened last weekend, and he knew what happened to Ryou. No one at the school or in Domino knew that Ryou was dead; everyone just thought that he went travelling with his father. Bakura snorted; like that would ever happen.

But Bakura, being the logical person he was, put together that if Soren knew about Ryou's death, then he also knew about the Game and would eventually lead him to the Shadow Men. Bakura would get Ryou back no matter what it took.

So he figured the best way to get to the Shadow Men was to go where the Game was last seen and then he would track Soren down.

Bakura soon found the creek; the water was clearer then it was in the pictures, of course then it was running with blood and ink. There was a yellow "crime scene" ribbon along the bed of the creek and little flags of various colors were stuck in the mud. Bakura scrambled down the slope to where tiny traces of blood on the rocks were still shown.

He looked around. There were small traces of activity here and there. Tracks in the dried mud, fallen branches snapped, and a long, thick trail that looked to Bakura like the track of a snake. Bakura followed the trails and pulled out his pocket knife. The tracks were old but it was still best to be safe.

He came to a large tree, its trunk was carved out, making a nice little hallow for someone to live in. But the air here was thick and disturbing. It was feral, like a predator.

Despite the warning bells going off in his head, Bakura took another step closer to the tree and had to plug his nose. It smelled horrible, like something rotting. Bakura took a few steps closer and felt like he was almost pushing against the heavy aura, like walking through maples syrup. The smell came stronger until he could taste it in his mouth.

Then he saw it; something dark coated the hallow of the tree and there must have been so much of whatever it is that it was dripping out of the hallow and forming a small puddle in the grass below.

Bakura took a few steps closer and saw something catch the light in a patch of poison ivy. He moved the leaves around with the tip of his boot and saw a rather large kitchen knife. Bakura hissed in a breath and knelt beside the puddle of the strange substance in the grass.

It was too far away from where the bodies were found for the police to have noticed this. He scraped some of it away with his knife. On the ground it looked black but on the silver of his blade, one could easily tell that it was a deep red.

Bakura put a hand to his mouth. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this was Ryuzaki's and Haga's blood. Bakura was in a rage; not needing any proof, he already assumed who did it.

Soren Tiu and those damn Shadow Men.

_Meanwhile ~_

Seto, Malik, and Yuugi were currently looking for Anzu at all the places she went. They asked her boss at Burger World if she had come in for work recently but he said no. They didn't want to ask Anzu's mom because if she didn't know, they didn't want her to worry. The group of three was visiting Anzu's neighbors when they got the call.

"I'm sorry, Malik, but we don't have time to find Bakura right now, I'm sure he's fine," Yuugi responded when Malik asked if they could look for Bakura instead.

"But—" he began.

Yuugi's phone buzzed in his pocket, cutting Malik short; Yuugi scrambled to get his phone out. He answered it and asked, "Hello?" He didn't bother to check caller I.D.

"_Hey, Yuugi, we've got him!"_ Jounouchi's cheerful voice blasted in Yuugi's ear. The boy vaguely heard the sound of struggle and shouting in the background.

"What? Got who?" Yuugi asked, totally confused.

"_Soren, who else?"_

"_Get out of my house, you creeps!"_

Yep, that was definitely Soren's voice.

"Jou, what did you do?" Yuugi asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"_Well, Honda and I found Soren's apartment but he refused to buzz us in. So we broke in and tied him up."_ Jounouchi's voice sounded far too gleeful.

"Jounouchi!" Yuugi cried. "You broke into his house?"

"_What? No one would notice in this neighborhood."_

"That's not the point!" Yuugi argued.

"_Well, whatever, I would hurry if I were you. Soren is beginning to struggle."_ Jounouchi pulled the phone away from his face for a moment to yell, _"Honda! Find some stronger rope!"_

"_Working on it!"_

"_I'm gonna call the cops of you guys!"_ That was Soren.

"_So, yeah, please hurry,"_ Jounouchi said, quickly giving Yuugi the address.

"Wait, Jou—!" Yuugi cried.

"_Bye!"_

The call ended and Yuugi stared at his phone in shock, as if he were staring at Jounouchi. Yuugi shook his head and put the phone back in his pocket. When he looked up, Malik and Seto were giving him strange looks.

"What was that?" Seto asked.

"It was Jounouchi," Yuugi answered. "They found Soren and tied him up to keep him where he is. We have to hurry, come on," he said, leading the way to Soren's house by the directions Jounouchi told him.

_Later ~_

It wasn't hard to find where Soren lived. The first indication was that the door was kicked down and the second was the yelling that was coming from the open window above. Malik stared up in amusement and exchanged a look with Seto. Yuugi cast wary glances at the shadows in the alleys and quickly darted up the stairs, not caring if Seto and Malik followed behind him.

They passed a few other doors; people Soren probably shared the building with. But Soren's apartment was at the very top, it was the only door that was opened; probably not the safest thing to do in this area of town.

When the three entered they saw Honda and Jounouchi in a whole good cop, bad cop bit. They were holding a light to Soren's face, the shades were drawn and they were screaming in his face.

Soren screamed back, "I don't have any idea what you're talking about! Just leave me the fuck alone!"

"Not until you tell us what you know! We know that you're hiding something so spill it!" Jounouchi yelled, slamming his fist on the wooden kitchen table.

Soren looked like he was about to retaliate with a witty comment when he saw Yuugi standing in the foyer. His eyes widened and he shook his head until he was dizzy. "No, no, no! You get away! I don't want to see you! You'll just lead them back here to me!"

Seto stepped up to stand in between Honda and Jounouchi; he leaned into Soren's face. "Lead who here?" he asked in a low threatening tone.

"I don't want the Shadow Men back here! I'm done with them! Yami will come back to use me if he knows you're here! I don't want to see that bastard's face again! Get out!" Soren shouted out insanely, clenching his eyes closed.

Everyone fell silent for a moment; eyes were wide as saucers. Yuugi was frozen in his spot, too terrified to move or even breathe; Malik clung to Yuugi's arm.

Jounouchi snarled and grabbed a fistful of Soren's shirt, bringing him closer to his face; Soren's eyes still remained screwed shut, the boy was shaking violently. "What to you know about the Shadow Men?" Jounouchi shouted, shaking Soren. "Tell me now, you son of a bitch!"

"Yami wants Yuugi, if Yuugi's here then he'll come," Soren whispered in a haunted tone. "I don't want Yami to use me anymore! I'm done with him! I don't want to be a part of his twisted little game!"

"Tell me!"

Everyone turned to Yuugi who had shouted that in surprise. His fists were clenched and his eyes were stinging with tears. He was staring down Soren, shaking while Soren refused to meet his eyes. "Tell me what you know about Yami and his game!"

Soren didn't make a move to show that he heard Yuugi, but he softly spoke up. His arms opened but he refused to make eye contact with anyone, just decided to look down at the floor. "He made me kill Haga and Ryuzaki," Soren whispered, again in that haunting voice. "I had to stab them in the gut and those monsters Marik and Akefia keep as pets finished them off while they were still alive."

Soren clenched his eyes shut again as tears squeezed past his closed eyelids. He could see their terrified faces as they dyed every time he blinked. It haunted him every day and in his sleep; he could never escape it; he could never escape his sins.

"He made me kidnap Anzu," he continued in a hushed tone. "So the real game could begin. He's coming, he's coming for you all whether you're ready or not. He's coming."

By the time Soren was done, Yuugi was shaking and tears were rolling down his cheeks. His legs could no longer support him so he fell to his knees and hugged himself to provide him comfort. Yuugi fiddled with the gold ring on his left finger that he could never take off, being a constant reminder that he was Yami's.

"I don't want to do any more bad things to anyone," Soren said in a steady voice. "I don't know what they might make me do next if _he_ finds out you're here. So please…leave."

-/-

**Ranko: I am so sorry that this chapter is short! But I like it, except for the beginning, it was kind of slow (I was kind of-ahem-half asleep when I wrote that part) but things will pick up soon. I might have to skip a few chapters in the original book so we can get to the exciting, new Game! **

**Yuugi: (still hugging Ranko) I'm so happy you're back!**

**Yami: I wasn't in this chapter! That is bullsh—!**

**Ranko: Anyway! It was difficult to get back into the habit of writing in block paragraphs, it was weird. But I'll adjust again!**

**Yuugi: Also, Ranko put up a poll on her profile! Make sure to check it out and vote! We would really like the readers' support! It was will taken down December 8 so you guys have a week to vote!**

**Yami: Will I be in the next chapter?**

**Ranko: Maybe…**

**Yuugi: Review and make Ranko a happy person!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Ranko: Have I ever mentioned that I love all of my reviewers?**

**Yami: Multiple times.**

**Ranko: Well, I do! Every single one of you are great and so sweet and supportive! You make writing enjoyable. You guys pushed me over 100 reviews on the seventh chapter! Last story it was like the tenth chapter! This is great!**

**Yuugi: We apologize to whoever the hundredth reviewer was on this story because we will not be doing the same thing we did last time with adding an OC or adding a scene that was requested.**

**Ranko: But I will be starting a collection of one-shots inspired by songs and will include multiple pairings! I don't know where I will start but I will take requests when I do! Speaking of reviews, I have a few to answer.**

**hikari no senshi17: Thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed it and don't worry, there will be no more deaths in this story! Please continue to review!**

**raindropdew: Thank you, its good to be back. Yeah, everyone needs to sleep and it was the middle of the night when I wrote that scene so I think that affected it. Thanks for the review!**

**SokiKuro: Thank you for the amazing review! You just kind of put me in a better mood when I read your reviews and I'm glad that I could make you smile with my story, lets me know that what I'm doing is worth it. And I know what you mean, I would have gone insane a long time ago if I weren't already. **

**Inspiration's Wonderer: Thank you for the awesome review! I know, I was laughing a little when I wrote the conversation between Jou and Yuugi on the phone. No one will get kidnapped…yet. Thanks for the review!**

**Epona1995: Thanks for the review and the Forbidden Game series is amazing! I got into the same way; I was reading a crossover of the Forbidden Game series and Ranma ½ by Angela Jewell and I fell in love with the story! Anyway, yeah, I know it started kind of slow, I didn't like it. I'm glad that the scene with Bakura played out so smoothly, that made me smile. I hope we get to see Yami in this chapter too ;)**

**SincereJoyy: Thanks for the awesome review! I agree when it comes to Soren and tendershipping is one of my favorite pairings because whether it is canon or not, it just works. And yes, I know Malik is Egyptian, but when I imagine him sickly pale I think of the way your skin is when your sick, clammy and just an unhealthy shade; a little lighter than your natural shade. Anyway, please continue to review!**

**Magi Magi Magician Girl: I don't know why, but I feel strangely proud that I made you scared. Because I know I suck at writing two things: battle sequences and frightening themes. Please continue to review!**

**Ranko: Well, I got them all, and if I didn't answer your review it doesn't mean I don't appreciate it, I love all of your guys! But I just have to narrow it down to concerns or questions, again, sorry.**

**Yuugi: Quit bringing yourself down, Ranko (hugs her). **

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing except her old computer with cat hair stuck in the keyboard. **

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

They were all sitting around the coffee table in Yuugi's living room. Yuugi got a strange sense of déjà vu from this, considering that this is exactly where they sat when they opened the Game and began to play it. Where Ryou was too afraid to swear to the oath and play the Game. Where they all laughed as they drew their nightmares as it were a joke and built the paper house.

And now here they were again, threatened by another Game that the Shadow Men set up for their own enjoyment.

Yuugi pondered all of this. If he had never waited until the last minute to buy Jounouchi his birthday present then he never would have had to go into that game shop and but THE SHADOW GAME. If he had never waited until the last minute and bought the Game then they never would have met the Shadow Men and they never would have played the Game and Ryou never would have died…

Yuugi chuckled bitterly. It was strange, thinking about one event, one mistake in your life and thinking how you could have changed it, how you could have avoided it creates this feeling of hollowness and regret in your chest.

"What are we gonna do?" Honda asked, voicing what everyone was probably thinking of.

Seto sighed and ran his long fingers through his bangs. "Well, that's the question, isn't it? What can we do?"

Everyone lowered their heads at this statement. There was nothing they could really do but wait. Yuugi remembered what Soren had said earlier that day. The boy was terrified of Yami, almost as much as Yuugi was and he had that he was coming back with another Game, but that was no use to the group if they didn't know where the Shadow Men were.

Mai rubbed her eyes and sighed, leaning back on the couch. "Where is Bakura?" she asked, more to herself than everyone else.

As if her words had summoned him, they heard someone banging on the door downstairs and judging by the shouted curses, it was Bakura. Malik flinched and pulled his legs to his chest, hugging them close. Mai rolled her eyes and went down to answer the door. She came back a moment later with the white haired boy.

"Where have you been?" Seto asked, noticing the mud stains on the boy's jeans and his wind-tossed hair.

"I know who killed Haga and Ryuzaki," Bakura said excitedly.

Jounouchi and Honda exchanged looks. "So do we," Jounouchi said, "It was Soren with the help of the Shadow Men."

Bakura looked flabbergasted. "Then why don't we get that bastard?" he asked in frustration.

"We already talked to Soren," Yuugi said, "he no longer has any connection with the Shadow Men."

"Then how are we gonna get to them?" Bakura asked.

Mai clapped her hands. "Now you've caught up with us, that is what we were just talking about. That's what you get for running around without us."

Yuugi glanced at Malik who hadn't spoken up since Bakura came in the room. "Well, even though we don't know where the Shadow Men are doesn't mean we can't prepare for when they make their first move," Yuugi said, "they're dangerous."

"You know," Jounouchi said thoughtfully, "I don't think they'll hurt you."

Yuugi raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, _they_?" he asked.

Jounouchi shrugged. "You know, the Shadow Men; Marik and Akefia, Yami's little henchmen."

Honda sat up with interest. "That's right; they would come out of the Game too, along with Yami."

Yuugi closed his eyes and leaned back into the plush cushions of the couch but finding no comfort from them. "Then it has all been real," he whispered in horrified shock. "Oh my, God; everything has been real. The phone calls were real, They really wore saying…" Yuugi couldn't finish.

Mai rubbed the bridge of her nose. So that means that Yuugi was right from the beginning, and she didn't believe him. How was she supposed to protect him if she wouldn't support him.

"And the dreams?" Honda asked. "Do you think those were real too?"

To everyone's surprise, Seto answered. "Sounds like it," he said in slight wonder. "Or maybe the Shadow Men can just make us dream what they want."

"We have to do something," Bakura said.

Mai chuckled bitterly. "Like what? What can we do against three Shadow Men that are set on revenge? Plus God knows what else they might have in store for us."

"Also, they have Anzu to hang over our heads," Honda spoke up.

"They kidnapped Anzu?" Bakura asked.

Everyone nodded simultaneously. "It doesn't look like we have a chance," Seto said with devastating logic.

"We're all in shock now," Bakura said. "We should choose a time this weekend to meet up and make plans on what we're going to do. How about, Saturday?" Everyone nodded their heads in agreement…except Malik.

"Actually," the blond spoke up meekly, "Yuugi and I can't."

Everyone whipped their heads around to stare at Malik. "Why not?" Jounouchi asked.

Malik twiddled his thumbs. "Well, Yuugi and I made plans a while back to go to the Halloween Dance at the school this Saturday."

There was an awkward silence in the room and then finally Seto said, "…_What_?"

Malik blushed and looked down at his feet. "We made plans and I was actually looking forward to going…"

Yuugi's eyes softened; he opened his mouth to say something but Honda cut him off. "After everything that has happened you didn't think of not going?"

Malik pursed his lips and Yuugi put an arm around his friend's shoulder. "Hey, it's not that big of a deal. Besides, don't you think that it is all of our best interests to take a break from all of this Shadow Men nonsense and just go to the dance and have fun? We all need to take our minds off of this and as long as we all go together in a group, we'll be safe."

Everyone exchanged looks with one another. Mai shrugged and said, "I don't see any harm in it, it actually sounds like fun." She rose to her feet and struck a few poses. "Do you think I could pass for a senior."

Everyone in the room laughed. Malik and Bakura caught each other's eyes from across the room and sobered. Bakura cleared his throat. "Yeah, you guys ought to be safe," he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Mai sat up and twisted around to face the white haired boy. "You're coming too." It was more of a statement than a question. "Didn't you just hear Yuugi? We all need to be together, that doesn't mean we stick together and you go off to your own little emo corner and pout."

Bakura sucked in a breath to shout but then released it in a low hiss and stormed out of the house. "Fine, I'll see you guys Saturday."

Mai sighed and ran her fingers through her bangs, blowing out a stream of air. "Drama queen," she muttered quietly.

_Saturday night ~_

Yuugi stood in front of his full length mirror and inspected his costume from every angle, starting to feel a little insecure. Malik had picked it out for him weeks ago and at first he had gone along with it but now he wasn't sure.

He was supposed to be a panda but it was anything but a cute little innocent costume; Malik found it in the adult section of the store. He wore black "too short to be considered clothing" shorts. Over a black tank top, he wore a tight zip up hoody without any sleeves, its pockets were black and the rest of it was white; when the hood was pulled over his head, there were little ears and a panda face.

Yuugi groaned; he looked ridiculous. He pulled on his black boots and went into the living room where everyone else was waiting. Mai was dressed as a pirate with a short skirt and the first few buttons of her shirt were undone to reveal her cleavage. Honda looked homeless but when asked he said he was a zombie. Seto was dressed in a three piece suit, a pocket watch stuffed in the pocket of his waste coat and rabbit ears on his head; the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Jounouchi were a shirt with a rainbow on it and cat ears on his head, written on the back of the shirt was "Nyan Cat."

Malik's costume could best be described as a bondage slave from ancient Egypt. But to follow the school dress code, he had to wear a shirt, but he cut off a few inches of it to expose his midriff.

The only one not there was Bakura but he said he would meet them at the dance.

"Are we all ready to go?" Mai asked, getting up from the couch and flattening the wrinkles out of her dress.

Everyone nodded and they left. They walked to the school, considering that it wasn't that long of a walk. They ran into a few of their fellow students along the way and complimented each other on their costumes. When they got to the school, they saw Bakura standing by the gates. He wore a long red coat over a black tank top and a blue shenti.

Honda snickered. "What are you supposed to be?"

"A thief," he said, glaring at Honda.

"That is stupid," Honda said, still chuckling a little.

Bakura sneered. "At least I'm not homeless," he said before turning on his sandal clad heel and began walking towards the school gym where the loud music and colorful lights were coming from.

Honda fumed and began to chase after Bakura. "I'm a zombie, damn it!"

Mai sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well, come on, I'm ready to dance," she said, sauntering forward, her skirt swaying around her moving hips.

When they got inside the gym, one could definitely feel the Halloween vibe. There were fog machines set up at all for corners of the room. Fake cobwebs hung from the walls and skeletons hung from nooses. The lights were eerie colors and there was maniacal laughter coming from a machine somewhere that made Yuugi jump every time.

Why did he decide to go with Malik? He didn't even like Halloween.

But the boy was looking around excitedly, jumping on the balls of his feet and swaying with the fast paced music. He grabbed Yuugi's arm and began to drag him onto the dance floor. "Come on!" he cried cheerfully.

Mai chuckled and followed behind them. They created a circle and began to dance to the music.

Meanwhile, Jounouchi hadn't moved from his spot in the entrance. He was petrified; he hated Halloween more than Yuugi did, even the possibility of something popping out and grabbing him scared him near death.

As if on cue, a hand reached out and touched his shoulder. Jounouchi nearly fainted right there but then a voice spoke, more like yelled over the music, in his ear. "Hey, Jounouchi, are you okay?" Seto asked.

Jounouchi looked over his shoulder at the man who was staring at him worriedly. "Y-yeah, I'm fine, just don't like Halloween is all."

Seto stared at Jounouchi a moment longer. "You mean that you hate being scared."

Jounouchi couldn't even find the energy to deny it and say something smart back to the CEO. "Yeah, I am…"

Seto took his hand off the blond's shoulder and crossed his arms over his chest. "To tell you the truth, I don't like being scared easily. My younger brother always pops out from behind corners and scares me because he knows that that is the only thing that can make me jump."

"Really?" Jounouchi asked, slightly surprised but also relieved that he wasn't alone.

Seto nodded his head. "Yeah, I don't understand why people go out of their way to get scared when they go see those horror films. If I sat through Paranormal Activity, I think I might just faint."

Jounouchi chuckled. "I know what you mean, I actually did faint."

A sweet smile touched Seto's lips and Jounouchi's face turned bright red. The taller man snapped himself out of it and cleared his throat, his face also turning a surprising shade of red. "So, um, do you wanna just…um, hang out? We don't have to, uh, dance if you don't want to, I mean. You know, just try and avoid getting scared," Seto finished dumbly, internally face palming.

Jounouchi smiled. "Sure," he said.

Just then, a first year snuck up behind the two males and shouted, "Boo!" Seto and Jounouchi nearly jumped ten feet in the air and turned around to see the snickering student with his idiot friends laughing like hyenas.

Seto chuckled dryly and grabbed Jounouchi by the arm, beginning to drag him away. "Yeah, yuck it up, you idiots. Tomorrow I'm suing you for all your worth."

The boys stopped laughing and paled. This time Jounouchi and Seto laughed like hyenas as they disappeared into the crowd.

_Elsewhere ~_

Yuugi was standing by the tables lining the walls with drinks and snacks; just staring at the sugaring snacks and drinks gave Yuugi a toothache. Instead, he grabbed a mini water bottled and sipped it daintily. His hood was pulled over his head so from the back, he looked like a girl; he had been approaching by a few intoxicated males in the last hour.

He left Malik alone with Bakura; Yuugi heard Malik say something like, "I'm not mad at you anymore, we were just never meant to be together," before he walked away. Now from what Yuugi could see, the two were acting like best friends again.

Yuugi was about to go out on the dance floor again when a slow song began to play. Everyone paired up with someone to dance with or decided to sit down on the bleachers and wait. Yuugi sighed and turned back to the snack table, the sugary treats really starting to look tempting, when a gloved hand tapped him on the shoulder.

Yuugi twirled around in surprised and saw a man dressed like the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera. His mask was covering half of his face and he looked like a good Victorian gentleman. He held a gloved hand for Yuugi to place his own in and smirked; something about that smirk was familiar to Yuugi but he just couldn't place his finger on it.

"May I have this dance?" a baritone voice asked.

Yuugi nodded, mesmerized by those enchanting eyes behind the mask. The man led Yuugi out to the dance floor and held him lightly, as if he were a delicate porcelain doll that would break if he squeezed to hard.

Yuugi floated in his arms and let his mind drift away; he didn't allow himself to think about Yami or the new Game that was awaiting them. All he focused on was how his feet moved with his partner's.

The man had swayed them away from the other dancers. He actually seemed to know a thing or two about dancing, or at least he was semi mobile. He had led them over to the two large double doors; it was darker over here and Yuugi felt strangely isolated.

Everything seemed to have slowed. The music had changed. The DJ must have moved on to another slow song when Yuugi wasn't paying attention. This song was a haunting melody; otherworldly. It was weird but beautiful. It was the type of music that got into your blood.

Yuugi began to feel strange. Time seemed to stretch out, like he was in a dream. He wanted to look up but it would be bad manners unless he wanted to be kissed, which Yuugi didn't. It was safer to keep his head down.

They had traveling through the double doors outside. Yuugi's partner was beginning to lead him farther away; he could barely hear the music now. He had to get away from this guy but Yuugi just couldn't resist.

Out here, where he could feel the crisp night air and be surrounded by the light from the stars and moon, he felt at peace. Yuugi felt like he was falling; slowly falling.

They were dancing just near the lining of the trees. Yuugi could hear the cicadas clearly now. It was an eerie sound. A formless, featureless, endless sound. Like white noise…

_Shhshhshhshhshhshhshh_

Suddenly, Yuugi was awake, more alert. His eyes snapped open, when had he closed them? The soft breeze that had tickled his neck was now a biting cold and sent chills of terror down his spine. It traveled up his spine and sent warning bells off in his head.

_Get out of here!_

Then he finally tried to pull away but his dance partner wouldn't let him. That light hold was now a grip of steel. One of his arms was trapping Yuugi's and the other was holding of back of his head.

Yuugi couldn't move. There was no point in screaming, he doubted anyone would hear him from this far away. He could no longer hear the music, just crickets and the harsh wind whistling in his ears.

Yuugi didn't know why he hadn't noticed it before but his partner's hair was tri-colored and spiked up like a star, similar to Yuugi's except it had lightning bangs shooting up his hair. The captivating eyes behind the mask were crimson and glowed like flames in the moonlight.

Eyes as clear as rubies. Eyes as dark as fresh blood.

The gothic punk from the game store that stared at him with that predator gleam in those same eyes. The betrayed look in those beautiful eyes as he closed the closest door and marked it with a sealing rune.

A voice whispered in Yuugi's ear, _"Famished."_

No, that wasn't quite right, more drawn out. _"Faaamishhshhed…"_

Yuugi's dance partner stopped for the first time and stared into Yuugi's horrified, amethyst eyes. He removed the mask and a familiar face was revealed underneath. He was smirking, earlier that night; Yuugi couldn't put his finger on where he had seen that smirk before. Now he remembered…

"Long time, no see, love," Yami said.

-/-

**Ranko: Yes, I am ending it there because it is late and I don't know what else to add to this chapter. The new Game should start, or be mentioned, next chapter, so look forward to that!**

**Yuugi: Also, Ranko twin has a special announcement! For getting over 100 reviews she will be starting a collection of one-shots based on songs but she also wants to celebrate by commissioning an artist to create a cover page for this story, like what she did for the Shadow Game. PM Ranko twin for details if you are interested!**

**Yami: Enough of that, no one cares! What they really want to know about is the result of the poll!**

**Ranko: Apparently a lot of you guys want to see what is up my sleeves when it comes to original stories so that one! Sad day, I deleted RENT. But before you rentheads get upset at me, RENT is not gone for good. It will be going under some serious editing and will be reposted when I find the time. **

**Yami: But there is another poll on Ranko twin's profile to see which original story she should start. Please vote and show your support!**

**Yuugi: As always, leave nice, long reviews!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ranko: Hey, everyone! Everyone one of you have been so nice with your reviews and I just love you all and I love the world and love, love, love. **

**Yami: It's either Ranko has finally lost it or she's on crack. **

**Ranko: I lost my mind a long time ago, has anyone seen it? And I may joke around with my friends and say I'm on drugs, but trust me, I'm not!**

**Yuugi: Why are you happy, Ranko?**

**Ranko: Christmas! And of course the break that comes with it!**

**Yami: But that also means the homework you were assigned to do over break.**

**Ranko: …Damn it. Let's just answer reviews before you put me in an even greater depressed mood.**

**SokiKuro: First off, let me just say that your review was plenty long and it made me laugh, in a good way. A lot of my friends are very hyper and I'm just the mellow one in the group that goes along with everything. But that's why I love them, they make me smile. Yeah, we love you Kaiba even though you sometimes act like a five year old girl in a haunted house. You have no idea how long I just sat in front of my computer and tried to figure out what everyone would be. Then I was like, "Duh!" Thanks for the review!**

**hikari no senshi17: After finishing the Yu-Gi-Oh series I just wanted friendship to go die in a hole…along with Anzu. But anyway, thanks for the awesome review, it made me smile. I'm starting to like puppyshipping more and more, it is just so cute! And I don't think Yami is going to let go of Yuugi anytime soon ;) Thanks for the review!**

**Aqua girl 007: I'm not sure what song was playing while they were dancing, L.J. Smith never said so I thought, why bother? But if it helps I was thinking of the song 'Kiss My Eyes and Lay Me To Sleep' while I was writing that scene. **

**SincereJoyy: I'm glad you liked the chapter so much! And yes, I have seen YGOTAS, I'm so happy that someone else caught onto it! Yay! And I especially loved Seto's costume, so cute! Anyway, I finally said enough of this and made Bakura and Malik make up. Yay, sweets! Thanks for the review! And suggestion ;)**

**lilpopslash: ALL CAPS RAGE! Ahem, anyway, I know how you feel, if you have ever watched Once Upon A Time, I was so upset at the finale! I was screaming at the T.V. at the end. I'm glad you liked the chapter and please continue to review!**

**Tyrant Dragon Knight: Your review made me smile, it was funny. I had to visit your profile to understand the relationship between you, Bakura, and Yami but I got it now! I'm glad you liked the chapter, I love YGOTAS! Thanks for the review. Awesome penname by the way, my favorite YGO card is 'Lady Assailant of Flames' she is just so awesome!**

**Ranko: How would you guys feel if you began calling me 'Lady?'**

**Yami: I would kick you, you are not going to change your username. **

**Yuugi: Unless the same thing that happened to (former) Alverna, happens to you. No offence to Magi Magi. **

**Yami: Before Ranko yells at me, I'll do the disclaimer. Ranko twin owns nothing.**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

Blood roared in Yuugi's ears like the wind howling past his head. He was suddenly thrown back to the time when he and Jou and the others had been sucked into the Game, dragged into the Shadow Realm. Where they had met Yami for the first time and they had to play that horrible Game. He felt the same hurricane feeling go through him now. The same mindless, helpless terror.

He felt like he was falling. Falling into emptiness; endless black.

But he didn't faint, though he wished he did. It felt as if even the slightest gust of wind could knock him off his feet now. Unintentionally, Yuugi hung to his arms, barely supporting his own wait. He felt like darkness was all around him, suffocating him as Yuugi realized something in horror.

Yami was going to kill him. He was the voice on the phone, he was the one that sent the wild dog to stalk him and Malik the other night, and he'd sent those strange dreams to all of his friends. He had used poor Soren as a pawn. He had killed Haga and Ryuzaki. And Ryou…

Yuugi sobbed.

Terror gave him the strength to take his own weight again, to try and get free. To his surprise, Yami actually let him. Yuugi reeled backwards a few steps and felt the odd feeling of bark from a tree prick his skin through his clothing.

Then they just stared at each other.

His first thought was how he could have been so stupid to have literally danced into Yami's hand. How could he be foolish enough to dance with a complete stranger, in general, when there were the Shadow Men running free?

His eyes were like dancing flames; soft yet commanding. The kind of eyes one would get lost in if given the chance. His face was shadowed by the moon, making his facial features look even sharper and more distinct. His hair looked smooth and soft.

Despite these human features, Yuugi knew that he was anything but. Yami was sharper, fiercer, brighter, more cunning than any human could be.

Then Yuugi realized something, Yami was in Yuugi's world now. They weren't in the halfway point like the game store they met in. He was here, in the real world, _walking_ and capable of anything.

And now he radiated danger that sent chills up Yuugi's spine. His heart was beating so fast that he was afraid he would faint.

Suddenly, Yami pulled something out of the pocket of his waistcoat. A rose so red it looked like it had been dyed with blood. It was similar to the rose Yami had given him during Anzu's nightmare in the Game. Yuugi flinched at the memory, remembering all of the events playing out.

Yami sniffed the flower and fingered the delicate petals. Yuugi's fingers itched to feel the smooth coolness of the flower.

"Red roses mean love, you know," Yami said, not taking his eyes off the rose.

Yuugi remembered Yami's voice now. He'd been away for it for so long that he forgot what it sounded like. He only remembered that he described it as musical.

Where was that wit and confidence that Yuugi had in the Game? Why couldn't he face Yami without shaking or wanting to run someplace far away?

Maybe it was because the last time he had seen Yami, Yuugi had betrayed him. He had lied to him, made Yami trust him. Then Yuugi had slammed a door on him, to keep him trapped there forever. He had left him imprisoned there. Yuugi felt a sudden pang of guilt. He couldn't imagine what Yami must have felt like after he realized what Yuugi had done.

Now that didn't matter, though. Now Yami was looking for revenge.

"Why don't you just do it?" Yuugi asked. Yami looked up from the red rose in his hand and quirked a questioning eyebrow at the boy, as if he had forgotten that he was there. Yuugi continued. "Go ahead and kill me."

Yami tilted his head like a cat. "Is that what I want to do?"

"It's what you did to Haga and Ryuzaki, not to mention Ryou."

Yami smiled; Yuugi flinched, he had forgotten that smile. Like a lion on the hunt, watching its defenseless prey, just waiting for the right moment. Yami's smile was the sort of smile that made people want to run and hide.

"Technically, I did not kill Haga and Ryuzaki, it was that Soren fellow—"

"You made him do it though," Yuugi interrupted.

Yami just smirked. "And I did not kill Ryou, his nightmare did. I played the Game fairly."

"But that's the reason you brought me out here, to kill me?" Yuugi knew that they were far enough away from the dance for anyone to hear his screams. His composure was hanging on by a thread, soon he would break and unravel.

Yuugi squared back his shoulders, closed his eyes, and held his head high. "Just go ahead and do it. Just get it over with." He wondered for a brief moment if Yami would kill him quickly or drag it out.

He didn't dare open his eyes when he heard Yami take a step closer to him. "All right," Yami said. He then pulled the boy closer and kissed him.

Yuugi's eyes flew open in surprise when he felt the soft pressure of Yami's lips against his own. It was such a smooth and gentle kiss, Yami's lips were soft. Yuugi heard Yami sigh and tilt his head to deepen the kiss; at this point Yuugi wondered why he wasn't fighting back.

He thought he remembered how it felt to be kissed by Yami. His memories failed him. This kiss was tender and sweet but Yuugi knew that Yami was anything but those two things.

Yami didn't make him feel safe at all. Yuugi had the dizzy sensation of falling. Yami's touch sent electricity tingle every one of his nerve endings, sending Yuugi's mind reeling.

'This is wrong,' Yuugi thought, yet he didn't pull away. 'He's evil.' He looped his arms around Yami's neck. 'He wants to kill me…' but his body wouldn't listen as he began to kiss back.

Kissing Yami felt so right for some reason. He was kissing Yuugi softly, tiny sweet kisses and long ones that turned wild. As if they were reunited lovers and not hunter and prey.

"Yuugi," Yami said, speaking with his lips brushing his. He sounded glad, as if he were just proven right. "You see how it is with us? Neither of us can fight what we feel. You've tried and you've failed; you can't kill my love for you."

"No, I don't feel that way," Yuugi whispered, trying to convince himself more than anything.

Yami either ignored or didn't hear Yuugi, because he continued. "We were meant to be together, its our destiny. Just give in, Yuugi, let me love you." Yami leaned in for another kiss.

Yuugi's eyes widened in horror, with a sudden burst of strength, he shoved Yami away from him. "_No_!" This resulted in Yuugi flying backwards instead of Yami, his back being scratched by the bark of a tree again.

Yami looked angry and tired at the same time, as if he were dealing with a stubborn child. "You're going to fight to the end, aren't you?" he asked impatiently. Yami crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged; he smirked. "Okay. You know, you're exciting when you're angry and personally, I have been starving for the sight of you." His smirk would have put the Cheshire cat to shame. "In fact, you may say I'm famished…"

"Don't," Yuugi cut in.

"I love that costume," Yami said as if he never heard the boy. He began to eye Yuugi in an appreciating manner, as if looking at a piece of meat. "It shows off all of your curves and doesn't really leave much to the imagination but I'm not complaining, you look very sexy. Although, I do not like everyone else at that dance looking at what's mine."

Surprisingly enough, Yuugi felt sexy. He loved the attention he was getting from his peers. He may be innocent but he wasn't stupid, he saw how everyone looked at him when he passed by. They wanted him and thought he was beautiful.

But he didn't want Yami to be one of those people and he didn't like how he was claimed as his. Yuugi looked down at the ring on his left finger that he could never take off. There was an inscription, a vow, on the inside of the ring. A vow to always be Yami's.

Yami noticed Yuugi's line of sight and look the boy's smaller hand into his own, running his thumb over the ring. Yami said, "This ring, the symbol of my oath, will hold me to the words I speak: All I refuse and the I choose."

Yuugi shut his eyes as if the words hurt him.

Yami continued to look at the gold ring that glittered in the moonlight. "Don't you remember your vow to me? The promise is unbreakable. You are sworn to forever be mine, Yuugi."

Yami was the incarnation of all darkness and anything evil and Yuugi was his. He had promised himself to Yami, of his own free will of the time; even though it was all just a trick it was still his choice. But now he had no choice.

"I've only come to claim what's mine," Yami continued. "You cast your own fate, Yuugi. You spoke the words, you let them be written, and now it's done. Didn't you ever think that you would have to pay up for gambling with the devil?"

Yuugi didn't know what he was thinking back in the paper house. He just wanted to save Jounouchi and his friends. He would have done anything at that point.

All Yuugi could get out was, "I wasn't fair." Even Yuugi knew that that was a pathetic argument.

Yami chuckled, dry and humorless. "Fair…life isn't fair," he said harshly. "That's not the point, you promised yourself to me," he pushed stubbornly.

Yuugi opened his mouth to explain but found that he couldn't because he knew that Yami was right. There was no way to justify what Yuugi had done. He had sworn an oath, given Yami his word. He knew the consequences yet he played the game anyway.

Yami traced a pattern in the air, leaving a trail of glowing lines where his finger had been; it was the shape of a vase on its side. "This is Perthro, the rune of gambling, the cup that holds the runes."

Yuugi wondered what this had to do with anything. "Oh, really?"

"The people who created the runes love to gamble. They would bet anything and everything on one roll of the dice. If they lost, they would go into slavery cheerfully, because they made a promise and they always played by the rules. Honor meant everything to them."

Yuugi thought that that sounded like the exact opposite of Yami. But he also understood what Yami was saying; Yuugi was no better than he was. He suddenly felt ashamed and he hung his head.

"Are you going to keep your promise?" Yami asked.

But it was a promise he never should have had to make. Yami forced him to play the Game. But Yuugi went looking for him and bought the Game. Yami had only given Yuugi what he asked for. It was his own fault…

But he just couldn't keep that promise.

Yuugi bit his bottom lip and met Yami's eyes with a look of defiance. It took all his courage to shake his head 'no.'

Yami just stood there for a moment, as if contemplating Yuugi's answers. He thought for a moment as Yuugi stood there, stiff as a board; he was obviously afraid, he thought Yami would hurt him. "You know I could just make you," he finally said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Yuugi nodded; he wasn't dumb. But at least he wouldn't have gone with Yami willingly.

Yami remained expressionless; he looked up to the night sky and studied the stars. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heel. "What do you say we play another game?"

'Oh, no,' Yuugi thought. Yami turned to look at him and realized that he had spoken that out loud.

Yami smirked and looked back up at the sky. "I could just force you, but I'll give you a sporting chance. I gave you the same leniency last game we played." Yami looked Yuugi directly in the eye and held up one finger. "One more game. One throw of the dice. If you wind, you're free of your promise. If you lose, you keep it and I take you back to the Shadow Realm. Do you want to play, or do we resolve this here and now?"

Yuugi took a few calming breaths while the wild part of him was screaming to accept his challenge. Like a fool, Yuugi listened to that wild part.

"One throw of the dice," Yuugi repeated with an affirmative nod of his head. "I'll play."

Yami smirked. "No holds barred, then. No quarter asked or given, for any of the players."

Yuugi froze. "What?"

Yami chuckled; Yuugi was getting damned tired of that sound. "Did you think I was going to fool around? This game is deadly serious, just like the last one."

"But it's just between us," Yuugi said desperately. "Just you and me—"

"No," Yami interrupted. "This is a game for all of the original players, for everyone who was in the paper house. No more and no less. There will by myself, Marik, and Akefia on my side with their little pets. On your side will be everyone who helped to trick or betray me. I'm going to catch every one of one at a time, staring with Rapunzel."

"No!" Yuugi cried, not even paying attention to Yami's last statement. What had he done? Ryou had died in the last Game…

"Yes, and the Game starts now. Ready or not, here I come. Find my base and you can stop me from taking them to the Shadow Realm."

"Taking _who_—?"

"Your friends," Yami answered before Yuugi was done asking his question. "Find them after I take them and you all go free. If not, I keep them all." Yami flashed a predator smile.

Yuugi didn't understand what Yami was saying. He was beginning to panic. He didn't even know what Game they were playing.

"Yami—"

Before Yuugi could finish his desperate plea, Yami bent down and swept Yuugi up in another kiss, this one harder than the last. Yuugi found himself kissing back instantly. Yami pulled back far too soon and crushed Yuugi to his chest. Yuugi could hear the steady beating of Yami's heart, as if he were human. "The new game is lambs and monsters," Yami whispered.

And then he was gone, as if he were never there.

The music began to drift back to his ears and he realized they had never been that far from the dance to begin with. For a moment, Yuugi thought it had all been a dream but he still felt the pressure, the tingling sensation, of Yami's lips against his.

Yuugi was about to turn around to go back inside the gym when he heard two familiar voice laughing. He turned and saw two familiar figures leaving the school grounds, laughing and stumbling, as if they were drunk. One of them had white hair that glowed in the moonlight and the other's golden features were like a beacon in the night.

Bakura and Malik.

He heard Yami's words in his ear, as if he were right behind him and whispering them.

_The Game starts now…I'm going to catch the one by one, starting with Rapunzel._

But this didn't sound like Yami's voice; it was more rough and edgier, like a doubled edged dagger.

Then the words finally sunk in. Anzu's nightmare. Golden hair. Rapunzel. Malik…

"Malik! Malik!" Yuugi screamed, jumping up and down and waving. They were too far away to see him in the dark and their own laughter was probably drowning out his shouts.

Bakura and Malik were walking further away from the school, as if they were heading home. They were walking right into the shadows.

"Malik!"

The boy didn't hear him.

_Meanwhile ~_

For Malik to say it was good to have his best friend back was an understatement. He felt great, wonderful, better than he felt when Bakura kissed him for the first time, which was like kissing his brother.

He hated those few days without him and the awkward tension between the two of them when they were in the same room. Malik finally decided enough was enough and approached Bakura at the dance, asking if this whole situation could just be water under the bridge.

And now they were laughing and enjoyed each other's company as if nothing ever happened between the two of them. They challenged each other to a race, to see who could make it to the next block first.

Malik took of running as soon as they called it. His laughter floated back and he wasn't even paying attention as the shadows seemed to come alive.

He finally made it to the next block and turned around to rub it in Bakura's face but all that greeted him from behind was darkness. His best friend was no where to be found. Malik heard a shout of surprise, seeming to come from every direction. The sound made Malik jump and twirl around, trying to find the source.

"Bakura? Bakura!"

Another shout. Louder, a terrible sound; Malik could barely tell if it was Bakura's voice past the blood rushing in his ears. Then a guttural snarl; a growling.

"Bakura! Bakura, what's happening?"

Then everything went silent, leaving Malik's ears ringing.

Then something glimmered, running towards him. It wasn't Bakura; it was something with a bluish tinge and shining. It was like an illusion, there and then gone. Malik tried to make his eyes focus. By the time he saw it clearly, it was almost on him.

It was unbelievable. It was a ghostly phantom dog. Dog put it lightly though; it was a huge beastly wolf. That is where the growling was coming from.

Malik turned around and ran, pumping his long legs into a spring but found him restricted by the shenti.

It was right behind him, he could practically feel it breathing down his neck. He could hear its growling; he sobbed as he thought that that thing probably got to Bakura and killed him.

He saw the lights of the city. If he could just make it some lighted area with a lot of people then he would be safe.

Then a giant black hole with electric blue edges opened up in front of him. Malik shouted in surprise and skidded to a stop, landing on his knees on the cold hard concrete. He fell right at the brink of the hole.

He stared down into it and gasped. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Down at the bottom was a shimmer of blue flames.

Malik didn't want to see anymore. He ran into the wide mouth of an alley, hoping that the trash bins would slow that thing down. But it was faster. It was right on his heel. Malik cried out for help as he saw the terrifying sight of a dead end at the end of the alley. He smacked against the wall and jumped, as if that would help him.

He turned around and pressed himself as flat against the wall as possible. It was standing right in front of him. It advanced on him slowly, as if mocking him.

This time there was no way for Malik to escape.

-/-

**Ranko: Don't you just love me when I give you cliffhangers?**

**Yami: Whatever, anyway guys, we will have the poll up until this Sunday, December 16! So please make sure to vote before then.**

**Yuugi: Make sure to leave a nice, long review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ranko: Merry Christmas everyone!**

**Yuugi: Have a holly, jolly one!**

**Yami: And a happy new year!**

**Ranko: Because it is the holidays, this is going to be really short.**

**xChaoticDawnx:**** Don't worry, there will be plenty more puzzleshipping moments. And no, Ryou will not be in this Game, I'm sorry if I got your hopes up.**

**raindropdew:**** I know, I just love perverted Yami. Yuugi is so cute, and he knows it too! Thanks for the review, and I hope that you do well with the auditions for your school's musical; I'll be doing that soon too.**

** .3:**** Run, Yuugi, run! Hopefully Malik won't be taken, I'm not done tormenting him yet. Thanks for the review!**

**Doragon-chan:**** Then he wouldn't be the Yami we all know and love.**

**Epona1995: ****Thank you so much! Your review made me so happy!**

**SincerJoyy:**** Everyone hates it when I end a chapter with a cliffhanger, I only do it because I love you all (insert evil laugh here). Which is worse: flames of hell or JB fans? Hmm…anyway, I just love it when Yami is being a little creeper, I think that its funny. The poll wasn't for a Ranma ½ story, by the way, it was for Yu-Gi-Oh. Thanks for the review, and I watched that video, it was really funny!**

**hikari no senshi17:**** Yeah, the reason Yami called Malik Rapunzel was because in the last story in Anzu's nightmare, he was Rapunzel. I pinky promise that I won't kill anyone, just because you asked me to! That's how much I love my reviewers. **

**lilpopslash:**** I know, Yami is sometimes an ass. Thanks for the review!**

**SokiKuro:**** First let me just say, that I have been keeping up with your story, its awesome! Sorry I haven't had a chance to review! Okay, on with the review response. Life does suck sometimes but that's what makes it interesting. Yuugi has conflicting emotions and Yami doesn't know how to express his feelings (which makes me feel bad for him), what am I supposed to do with these two? I just decided "enough of this" and made Malik and Bakura make up. Your review made me feel so loved and it wasn't depressing! Please continue to review and you are not a cheesy idiot!**

**sea girl:**** Okay, your review just made my day! You made me feel so loved, thanks for the review!**

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!**

**Ranko: Enjoy**

_**All three**_**: And have a Merry Christmas!**

-/-

Malik screamed as the phantom wolf pounced on him, knocking him off his feet. He was pinned beneath the ghostly thing as it snarled in his face, its hot, steamy breath making him choke. It growled and snarled, spit flying from its jaws. It opened it mouth wide as if it were about to eat Malik whole.

"_I told you I would find you, Malik-pretty."_

The boy felt something similar to a warm, calloused hand run along his bare thigh, teasing him and making him cringe.

"_Now we'll be together."_

Malik clenched his eyes shut as the phantom above him howled one last time and then there was a yelp from the great beast above him. The weight was removed from his body and he no longer felt the sensation of someone touching him, though he didn't dare open his eyes.

He heard yelling and cursing that sounded vaguely familiar. Malik heard a noise similar to a vacuum being turned on and then everything abruptly stopped, leaving Malik in a deafening silence.

He felt a presence loom over him and he flinched away in fear of who it may be. Then a strong hand grasped his own and hefted the boy to his feet; Malik's eyes popped open in surprise.

Bakura stood before him; Malik let out a short cry of happiness that his friend was okay. Though, he looked worse for wear. His red coat was in shreds and soaked with blood that Malik hoped was the wolf's. In his hand he held a dagger, which was probably hidden under his coat the whole time, and was slicked with a sticky black substance. He was breathing hard and his hair was in a disarray.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Malik said breathily. He felt like he would collapse and grabbed Bakura's shoulders to keep him steady. He looked over his friends shoulders for any sign of Marik or the wolf. "Is it dead?"

Bakura shook his head. "No, it opened up another one of those black holes and jumped through it; it closed up immediately.

Malik thought of the vacuum like sound he heard earlier and wondered if that was what that noise was. Before he could question Bakura further, they heard a shout.

"Malik!"

Bakura and Malik both turned and saw Yuugi running towards them. The boy looked frantic and his voice sounded terrified when he shouted Malik's name. He was paler than usual, making the half-moons under his eyes stand out surprisingly.

As soon as the boy reached them, he dropped to his knees, panting and all of his limbs shaking; Malik and Bakura followed him down.

Yuugi's already wide eyes became saucers when he noticed Malik and Bakura. "Oh, God, are you alright? What happened?"

"The phantom wolf," Bakura said with resentment. "One of the Shadow Men's pets."

"Marik," Malik said, without missing a beat. Bakura and Yuugi both turned to the Egyptian boy in surprise; he was able to say the Shadow Man's name without flinching. "It was Marik's wolf."

Yuugi hugged his friend tightly but loosened his grip, refusing to let go, when Malik hissed in pain; when the wolf tackled him, he landed in a heap of garbage. Bakura awkwardly patted his friend's shoulder; he was never that good with affectionate moments, except with…

Yuugi pulled away and looked into Malik's lavender eyes. "So what happened to you?"

"The wolf…that phantom thing, tried to chase me into this black hole with fire and…" Malik shook his head and shuddered at the memory of it. "I don't know why, it just wanted me to fall into it."

Yuugi looked near tears. "Oh, God, it's all my fault," he whispered.

Malik shook his head. "Stop saying that, it's not your fault; its not like you sent to wolf after me."

Yuugi gulped and looked away in shame. "Actually, in some way…I did."

Malik and Bakura both exchanged confused looks. "What? How?" Malik asked, still a bit confused.

"I…I saw Yami at the dance and…the new Game has begun…because of me. I agreed to play the new Game."

A long silence settled over all three of the friends. Yuugi's head hung down in shame. Bakura began to feel wary with all the shadows of the night surrounding them. He rose to his feet and gesture Malik and Yuugi to follow him; Malik helped Yuugi to his feet.

"We need to get everyone together and talk so you can explain, Yuugi," Bakura said. "We also need to call everyone's parents and explain to them why they won't be home tonight." Malik and Yuugi both game the white haired man a look; Bakura rolled his eyes at them. "We don't do anything dangerous, all of us just need to talk and it will be a lot safer if we're all together."

Malik shrugged. "We've been living in Yuugi's apartment for the past, what, two days? If anyone calls just tell them that we're having a study group over there or we're all working on a big project together that will take a couple days."

They nodded in agreement and ran back to the school gym to gather everyone. It was hard to locate them through the crowd of students. They dragged them all away back to Yuugi's apartment, questions flying left and right. When they realized none of them would be answered and received a harsh glare from Bakura they all ceased talk.

It was nearly one-thirty in the morning by the time they made it back to Yuugi's apartment.

"Caffeine," Jounouchi mumbled tiredly, leaning back on the plush sofa.

Seto sat next to him. "Stunts your growth; makes you blind." Jounouchi was too tired to even glare at Kaiba so he just decided to nudge his leg with his knee.

"There is no food," Honda called from the kitchen, looking through the refrigerator. He came back to the living room and leaned against the wall. "And can someone please tell me what's going on? I was having a good time at the dance."

"I was nearly killed," Malik said from the loveseat across the room.

"So what I'm hearing is that you didn't have a good time?" Honda asked smartly; Malik threw him a look that told the brunet he was no amused. Everyone hadn't even bothered changing out of their Halloween costumes, except Mai, who had just reemerged from her bedroom wearing flannel sweat pants and a baggy white shirt.

"What's this I hear about someone almost getting killed?" she asked.

"Is someone going to explain what happened?" Seto asked, beginning to get annoyed; Jounouchi put a hand on the man's shoulder to calm him down.

"Malik can go first," Yuugi said quickly, drawing his legs up to his chest and hugging them close.

Malik took a deep breath and began to describe what had happened to him, taking small pauses here and there to compose himself.

"What's up with the hole?" Honda asked after the explanation. "Pardon my asking, by why didn't the wolf just kill you?"

"Because it's a Game," Yuugi said, speaking up. "A new Game."

Everyone's attention switched to Yuugi who curled up into a tighter ball with everyone's attention on him. He opened his mouth to speak and then shook his head, hiding his face in his knees.

"You've seen Yami."

Everyone's heads swiveled around the stare at Mai, who had said that statement without hesitation. Yuugi nodded silently and nearly everyone's eyes widened at once. Jounouchi's shoulders tensed; Seto stared at him with an inscrutable expression, and Honda whistled.

"Now, explain," Bakura commanded.

Yuugi told them everything. Well, not everything, only the essence of the whole conversation. The matters of importance to them…like the new Game. He left out bits that no one really needed to no about. Like the kissing.

"He said that he'd give me a chance to get free of my promise," Yuugi finished. "That he was going to play a new Game with us, and that we were all the players. And at the end he said that the new Game was lambs and monsters."

Mai, who had been listening attentively the whole time, sat up with interest at this, surprise covering her features. "You mean that thing the kids were playing?"

Bakura scratched his head in confusion. "What lambs and monsters?" he asked. "I never heard of it."

"It's like cops and robbers," Malik explained. "Its starts like hide-and-seek—if you're a monster, you count while the lambs hide. Then we find a lamb, you chase it—and if you tag it, it's caught. Then you bring it back to your base and keep it as a prisoner until somebody else sneaks up to let it free."

"Or until all the lambs are caught and get eaten," Mai said grimly.

Seto crossed his arms and leaned back. "Cute game."

"If we're playing, we'd better find out the rules," Bakura said; Malik nodded in agreement.

Yuugi looked around the living room and saw all of his friends faces when they played the first Game. They were terrified, in pain. Ryou's pleading eyes flashed in his mind for the briefest moment. He couldn't put them through that again. "We may not have to play," he said quietly.

Everyone turned to him in shock.

"What do mean?" Mai asked, looking at her cousin warily.

Yuugi shrugged. "Well, maybe I should just stop it right now."

Time stood still for a moment, everyone was quiet, and then they all broke out in protest.

"No!" Malik nearly shrieked, rising to his feet. "You can't give into that bastard! You can't! Never!"

"We're going to fight him," Jounouchi said, getting to his feet and putting a supportive hand on his friend's shoulder.

"We have to fight him," Mai said. "You know that, Yuugi."

"Well," one voice piped in. Everyone turned to look at Bakura. "It would save us a lot of time and trouble…" he said, trailing off. Everyone stared at him, wide eyes and mouths agape.

Malik smacked him. "No way!"

"Ouch, I was kidding," Bakura said, chuckling. He them turned to Yuugi, his rust colored eyes serious. "You'd better not give into them."

"We won't let you," Seto said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

"Yeah," Honda agreed full heartedly. "It's our problem too."

Yuugi felt strangely loved, but also guilty. They didn't understand what it meant to be in the position Yuugi was in. They didn't know that he'd almost surrendered of his own free will.

Jounouchi squeezed down on his friend's shoulder, as if sensing what Yuugi was feeling. "He's evil, Yuugi, you can't just let evil win because of us; you can't."

Mai's dry voice cut through the impassioned atmosphere. "I don't think that there's much point in arguing about it. Because of what Yuugi said before, it sounded like he agreed to the new Game."

Yuugi felt a new wave of guilt sweep over him. "I did; I don't know…when I agreed I thought he'd leave the rest of you alone. I didn't think any of you would be involved, I swear!" the boy said desperately.

Malik sunk to the floor and leaned against the couch. "And he said that the Game had started, which means there's nothing he can do to change it now, even if Yuugi wanted to."

Bakura smirked, his canine teeth glinting in the low light; his mischievous eyes glowed like a demon's. "Like I said from the beginning, we better figure out the rules if we're going to play."

They all looked at one another. They were all together again to play another crazy Game.

"So what do we do to win?" Honda asked, coming back from the kitchen with a Coke; he popped the tab open and took a few gulps before lowering the can and wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

"Avoid getting caught?" Jounouchi said, more as a joke.

"It's not as simple as that," Mai said, a look of deep concentration on her face. She began to pace the floor. "The first Game, the one in the paper house, was the like a race game. In a race game the point is to get from the start to the goal in a certain amount of time, or before anybody else does."

"Kind of like Chutes and Ladders," Honda said; everyone gave him a look, the same look they gave him when he was being ridiculous. "No, I'm serious! We went up the stairs in the Game and then fell down the chute back to the first floor."

"Oh, yeah!" Jounouchi said, slapping his fist in his palm. "I had a game like that when I was a kid, except it was called Snakes and Ladders."

Mai sighed. "We get it; a lot of games are race games."

"But then there are hunting games, too," Malik said from where he was sitting on the floor. "Those are actually the oldest games of all. Like hide-and-seek, that started out as practice for stalking wild animals."

Bakura gave him best friend a surprised look. "How do you know that?"

Malik craned his neck back to look at his friend. "Ishizu told me. And tag is like capturing domestic animals. The new game Yami is playing is like a hunting and capturing game."

Honda shrugged, taking a sip of his Coke. "So he's planning to hunt us down and capture us like animals?"

"Not quite, sweetheart," Mai said grimly. "It's more like where you catch each of the animals and put them in a big pen to wait for the slaughter."

Honda choked on his Coke.

"Well, it's true," Mai said. "He didn't say he was going to kiss us one by one. He said he was going to capture us until the free ones find his base."

Wiping the Coke from his chin, Honda said, "Let's just find the base and avoid the Game."

"But that's the point," Mai said. "How do we find it?"

"How _can_ we find it?" Seto asked. "It's hopeless."

"Didn't he tell you anything about it, Yuugi?" Malik asked. "You know, Yami's base?"

Yuugi shook his head helplessly. "No, its just supposed to be this place to keep us before he takes us to the Shadow Realm."

"Which mean's its not the Shadow Realm itself?" Honda asked, wondering back to the kitchen for some Cracker Jack. He came back, munching away. "Thank God," he muttered with his mouth full.

Malik paled slightly. "But wherever it is, we have to get there by passing through those holes," he said, shuddering. "I'll pass, thank you."

Mai put a finger to her chin in thought. "Now, these holes, they make me think of something. There's a story by Ambrose Bierce, he wrote this trilogy about weird disappearances, and there was this one story about a sixteen year old boy. I can't think of his name right now but one night after it snowed he went out to the spring to get water. Well, he went out the door and he never came back. His family went outside to see what happened and they saw his tracks in the snow. The tracks were halfway to the spring and just stopped dead. Nobody ever saw him again."

"Great," Seto said unenthusiastically. "But what does this have to do with things?"

Mai threw the man a look. "Well, the story is supposed to be fictional. But there was this one part in the book, where this German doctor had a theory about how people disappeared. He said that 'in the visible world there are void places.'"

"Like holes in Swiss cheese?" Honda asked, stilling eater Cracker Jack.

"And that guy fell in one?" Yuugi asked with interest.

Mai shrugged. "Fell…or was dragged. Like I said, the story was supposed to be fiction. But what if there are really voids like that? And what if Yami can control them?"

"Well, there's a nasty idea," Bakura said with distaste.

"Are you saying that all of these people who disappear fall into the Shadow Realm?" Malik asked.

Mai shrugged again. "Maybe not all of them, but some of them. And maybe not all the way, just partway. In the story, the kid's mother went by the place where he disappeared the next, she could hear his voice. She heard it fainter and fainter every day, until it just faded away completely."

"A halfway place," Yuugi said thoughtfully. "Like the game store where I met Yami for the first time. Some place to keep us until he takes us to the Shadow Realm."

"Did it look like vortex, Malik?" Honda asked.

Malik gave him a look. "It was big and black," he said shortly. "I don't think it can look more like a vortex than that."

Honda shrugged and began to play with his prize from the Cracker Jack box.

"But that doesn't help us find the base," Yuugi said. "Unless we jump into one of those voids, and then I don't think we're coming back."

"It closed up completely," Bakura said. "After the wolf jumped in it, it just disappeared. I don't even think I could find the place again."

"Anyway, I bet he can move them around," Honda said, and then he finally looked down at his toy. "What the hell is this?"

Mai snatched it out his hand and inspected it.

"What is it?" Yuugi asked.

"It's a book of poetry." It was a very small book, on cheap paper with large print. One sentence per page. But it was a very strange poem for a Cracker Jack prize. Mai read, "In the midst of the word he was trying to say,/ In the midst of his laughter and glee,/ He had softly and suddenly vanished away—/ For the Snark was a Boojum, you see."

There was dead silence in the room.

Seto shrugged. "It could be a coincidence."

Mai shook her head. "But that doesn't make any sense, what would a poem like this be doing as a prize in a Cracker Jack box?"

"What do you mean, Mai?" Yuugi asked.

"This poem is about these guys going out to hunt these imaginary animals—Snarks. Only some of the Snarks are Boojums and those hunt you. So one of them finds a Snark only it turns out to be a Boojum."

"It's from Yami," Yuugi said immediately. "But is it about what has happened tonight or what's going to happen."

"You think he's giving us clues in advance?" Jounouchi asked.

"I guess it would be sporting," Seto said tiredly.

"He gave me a clue like that just before the Game began. He said that he'd be going after 'Rapunzel' next. And in Anzu's nightmare, Malik was Rapunzel," Yuugi said.

"That means we might have a chance," Mai said thoughtfully, giving the book of poetry back to Honda, who looked at it, shrugged and went back to the kitchen to get something more to eat. "If we can figure out the clues before hand and crowd that person…" Mai continued.

"I know we can do it!" Jounouchi said excitedly.

"It might actually work," Seto said optimistically.

"Of course it will work!" Malik shouted with joy, hopping to his feet. "We're going to beat that son of a bitch!" Malik said more to Bakura than anyone else.

Yuugi got caught up in the fervor himself. "It's not going to be easy…"

"But we'll do it," Mai said, putting a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "Because we have to." Yuugi nodded determinedly.

"We'd better start with the clue we have now," Seto said, sitting back. "Where'd the clue go?"

Mai looked around. "I gave it to Honda."

Seto raised an eyebrow. "Well, where'd Honda go?"

Mai sighed. "I don't know, to the kitchen for more food? Honda!" she called. "Honda, we need you, get out here!"

There was no response. Everyone exchanged confused looks.

"Honda?" Yuugi tried this time. There was no sound of cupboards or refrigerator doors opening. No popping of popcorn or opening of soda cans. It was all dead quiet. "Honda?" Yuugi called warily this time. "_Honda_?"

Jounouchi looked panic and he dashed to the kitchen, everyone else hot on his heels as raw panic began to settle into the guts of everyone in the group.

Yuugi looked around the kitchen corner and saw that it was completely empty.

"_No! No! Oh, God, no!_"

-/-

**Ranko: You know, I was going to post this Christmas day, so it will be a special treat and make you guys wait longer, but why make me suffer as well? I love it when you guys review!**

**Yami: So, we hope to get out the first chapter for the new story soon so be patient.**

**Yuugi: Please review! **

**Yami: That will be your Christmas present to Ranko twin if you don't want to buy her anything!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ranko: Hey…hey…hey…hey…guess what?**

**Yami: (sighs) What?**

**Ranko:….it's 2013! Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that all of you are full of love and hope for the start of a new year and a chance to right the wrongs you may have done.**

**Yuugi: Because that is what New Years is about!**

**Yami: (to readers) Don't be freaked out, this is how these two behave every New Year…even though Ranko really doesn't celebrate it. She just gets up in the morning says, "Oh, its 2013…" and falls back to sleep.**

**Ranko: Bite me! Alright, let's answer some reviews!**

**raindropdew:**** Thank you, and I hope that you had an awesome Christmas too! Now I'm back from vacation and have work to do…ugh, must sleep. Anyway, Honda will be fine and I sure hope that Yuugi and the gang get their butts in gear! Thanks for the awesome review!**

**hikari no senshi17:**** I don't think anyone is going to die in this one…but maybe someone in the sequel of the sequel (third story). Oh no (gasp)! Dun dun dun!**

**k. alex c-well:**** Aw! Thank you so much! Don't worry, Ryou isn't really dead! It's all good!**

**Dinogirl:**** That wasn't a fake Honda, it was the real Honda the whole time and he just disappeared when he went back to the kitchen. There wasn't really any point in him taking the clue (because it's a clue saying how he'll be taken) it was just so the rest of the gang would realize he was missing. I think I would like it better if Yuugi stayed with Yami X3 Dark puzzleshipping! Thanks for the review. **

**SincereJoyy:**** Yep, Malik is a tough little guy! I love him so much! And I know how fangirls can be sometimes, they're scary…(shudders). I hate it when my phone is difficult, especially when I want to read fanfiction and I'm too lazy to go on the computer. Thanks for the review!**

**Candyfiend:**** Aw! You so nice! And thank you for pointing out that error! I always get those two mixed up (even though I do know the difference between the two -_-) I'm lazy in my editing. **

**Yuugi: On with the story!**

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing, as always!**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

The kitchen was almost completely empty, if it wasn't for the fact that there was a little paper doll sitting in the middle of the kitchen on the brightly tiled floor.

It was folded, so it could sit, and one of its little paper arms was twisted up, as if waving to someone. As if the doll was saying, "Hey, what's up?" It was mocking Yuugi with its playful crayon gaze and lopsided grin drawn on with black colored pencil.

Jounouchi was shaken more badly than anyone else. One of his best friends was taken and what was left in his place was a paper doll. The blond dropped to his knees and picked up the doll gently, as if it were a real person.

Then, his honey-gold eyes widened in horror. "This…this is the doll that Honda had used in the Game…in the paper house…oh my, God. That's…that's impossible…" Jounouchi hunched over and looked as if he were about to start crying when Seto put a comforting hand on his shoulder and helped him to his feet.

Not caring if anyone saw, Jounouchi leaned against Seto's chest, he wasn't sure if he would be able to support himself, and he hid his face in the taller man's shoulder so his friends wouldn't see him cry. Seto rubbed the blond's back soothingly as Jounouchi shook like a leaf.

Yuugi was frozen in his spot, what Jounouchi said was true. It was impossible for the doll to be here. The last time any of them had seen it was when Yuugi packed it up with the rest of THE SHADOW GAME. The only other people who had opened the box after that were Haga and Ryuzaki.

'But isn't it possible for the Shadow Men to have gotten their claws on the Game?' the little voice of logic said in the back of his head. 'Stranger things have happened.'

Yuugi realized that they hadn't seen the dolls when they went to the police station for the first time after they were called in by Mai and Miho. When Miho showed them the paper house, it was missing the paper dolls.

Jounouchi wiped his eyes and stepped away from Seto, refusing to make eye contact with the man. "Where is Honda?" he asked to no one is particular. "Where is he?" Yuugi saw anger build up in Jounouchi's eyes.

Malik stepped up. "Calm down, Jou—"

Before Malik could finish his sentence, Jounouchi whirled on him, pure rage set in his eyes. He painfully grasped Malik's forearm, the boy shrieked in surprise and pain. "Where the hell is Honda?" Jounouchi shouted in Malik's face, nearly spitting on the boy.

Bakura grabbed Jounouchi's shoulder and dug his nails into the skin. Jounouchi flinched but didn't turn around. Bakura's eyes were glowing red with anger. "Let go of him," he said in a low and deadly tone. Jounouchi didn't move an inch and Malik didn't know who to be scared for, Bakura or Jounouchi. "I said, let go of him!"

Bakura forcefully pulled Jounouchi away, nearly sending both boys tumbling backwards. The two almost got in a fist fight, both snarling with rage, if Mai hadn't stepped in and slapped both boys across the face.

"Cool off, both of you!" she shouted; her fury succeeded both Jounouchi's and Bakura's rage combined.

The room was deadly quiet as everyone waited for what Bakura or Jounouchi's next move would be. "But…" Jounouchi spoke up quietly, meekly. He was obviously much more calm; exhausted. "How did he get out of the kitchen?" he asked. "We were right around the corner, how did we not hear anything? I mean, we were right there."

Mai dropped to her knees and began to look on the floor, running her fingers across the tiles. She finally nodded, like she had found what she was looking for. "Its darker over here—see? This whole area is a little darker and it smells burnt."

Yuugi saw it too. It was a darker patch, only a few feel in diameter, and a perfect circle. Exactly where they found Honda's doll sitting.

Bakura sighed, releasing his anger but his whole body was still tense, as if waiting for someone to just attack him. Malik approached both boys cautiously and then turned to Jounouchi. "You didn't see that hole, that void, Jou. It didn't make any noise. That's how Honda got out of the kitchen."

"In the midst of the word he was trying to say, / In the midst of his laughter and glee," Seto quoted.

The last of the cloudiness in Yuugi's mind vanished. Fighting and tears weren't going to help Honda now. They weren't going to help anyone. Yuugi looked at the paper doll of Honda clenched tightly in Jounouchi's hand.

It was all his fault. Honda had fallen into one of those voids and it was all Yuugi's fault, just as Ryou's death had been. Why was Yami doing this to him? Did he do it on purpose? Did he know what it did to Yuugi? Why him? Why his friends?

Yuugi mentally slapped himself. Honda wasn't dead yet.

"We'll find him," Yuugi said, just loud enough for everyone else to hear. "We'll find him, and we're going to win this Game."

Mai was still looking at the mark on the kitchen floor. "It's like the mark a UFO might make, when it lands. A perfect circle."

Jounouchi was sniffling and rubbing his eyes raw. Yuugi went over to his friend and patted him on the back. "Hey, we'll get Honda back. We beat the last Game, we beat his nightmare, I'm sure we can beat this too." Jounouchi nodded in agreement.

Mai stood up in one fluid motion and joined the rest of the group. "Its best if we all stayed together, I mean, closer."

"We can all sleep in the living room," Yuugi suggested. "On the floor. We can push the furniture back."

They collected as many blankets and pillows as they could find in the house and pushed all of the furniture to the side of the room. Malik suggested barricading the door, Bakura even helped him, but Mai grabbed both boys by the ear and dragged them away.

As this was going on, Yuugi was in the bathroom, getting changed out of his Halloween costume and into his nightclothes. He threw the costume in the hamper, at the very bottom where he would eventually forget about it. He shuddered as he remembered the way Yami looked at him when he was wearing the costume, like he slowly wanted to strip it off of Yuugi.

Yuugi shook his head to rid himself of those unpleasant thoughts and looked in the mirror. He looked horrible. He had large half moons under his usually luminous eyes, but now they were dull from lack of sleep and slight fear. This was a much more serious Game with a lot more at risk.

Yuugi was afraid to be alone for a minute. But they hadn't gained another clue yet so Yami couldn't do anything. It wouldn't be fair. Yuugi scoffed; but then again, when has Yami ever been fair?

"We're going to beat you Yami," Yuugi said to his reflection. He realized quite some time ago that Yami could probably hear him, knowing the Shadow Man, he was probably spying on him right now. "I'm going to beat this Game and get my friends, and get back Ryou."

Yuugi felt a cold chill run up his spine; his confidence was gone, he was afraid again. He left the bathroom to join everyone in the living room. Everyone was strangely peaceful, no one had broken out in hysterics yet, except Jounouchi but that was all in good reason. Malik was snuggled up against Bakura's side in a purely friendly way. Jounouchi and Seto were sitting closer than they usual did on the couch. The only one missing was Mai.

Now Yuugi was about to freak out.

"Where's Mai?" he asked his group of friends.

Jounouchi put a finger to his chin for a moment in thought. "She said that she had to go get a few things from her room." He then shrugged his shoulders.

That didn't ease Yuugi's nerves. 'But there is still no clue,' he reassured himself. Nonetheless, he went down the hall to Mai's room, hating to admit that he jumped every time he saw a shadow only to realize that it was his own.

He found Mai sitting on the edge of her bed, her elbows resting on her knees and looking longingly at a framed photo. Yuugi knew that she knew he was there; he approached her from behind and smiled when he saw what the picture was.

It was him as a baby, maybe a year old. Mai was sitting on the couch in Yuugi's old home, holding baby Yuugi in her arms. She wore a large, gap-toothed grin as baby Yuugi seemed to laughing at his goofy cousin. One could clearly see the whole living room from the direction the photo was taken.

"It's us," Yuugi said in a melancholic tone. Those were much simpler times, when his life was hectic and full of crazy Shadow Man. That peace faded from Yuugi when he saw the door leading down to the basement in the corner of the shot.

"No, it's not," Mai said, not looking up from the photo. "It's Magritte."

Yuugi furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion. "But, it is us."

"No, it isn't," Mai continued to argue back. "A picture of us is not physically 'us,'" Mai explained. "It's something I learned in my art class."

Yuugi understood that for a moment, and then it slipped away. He shook his head; that made his brain hurt.

"An image is not reality," Mai said, hoping to explain it in simpler terms. "Even though we're used to thinking that most of the time. If you see a picture of a pipe you say, 'it's a pipe,' but it's not. It's just an image." Then with a smile, Mai said, "A paper house is not a house."

Yuugi threw his cousin a look. "Unless you have somebody who can make an image into reality."

Mai chuckled and shook his head. "Touché, cousin." Mai put the photo of the two of them back on the side table and stood. "It's important to understand the difference between image and reality," Mai said, looking at her cousin sideways. "That's the first thing they teach you when you become a Shadow Hunter."

Yuugi shook his head. "I still think of the Mortal Instruments series when you say Shadow Hunters. And that makes me think of Magnus Bane and Alec." That earned a full laugh out of Mai, which in turn made Yuugi laugh. "Can you believe what happened in the last book, they—"

"No spoilers," Mai said with a wink; the cousins giggled. Then Mai sobered. "I used to think the imaginary world was better, and then I saw it…"

"Mai…" Yuugi began, putting a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder.

"What are you guys doing in here?" An obnoxious voice cut through the silence in the room and ruined the tender family moment between Yuugi and Mai. Two heads turned and they saw Jounouchi standing in the doorway with Seto standing behind him, shaking his head. "We were starting to think you had gotten kidnapped or something."

"Actually, only you were thinking that Jounouchi," Seto corrected. "Everyone else was trying to watch a movie while you were pacing around the living room."

Yuugi laughed as he imagined Jounouchi doing just thought. Absentmindedly, Yuugi twisted the gold band around his finger. Noticing what he was doing, his flattened his arms against his side. Jounouchi and Seto were too busy bickering but Mai noticed and looked at her cousin with pity.

The ring was on to stay, and there was nothing he could about it. It wouldn't come off unless Yami wanted it too, which Yami obviously didn't want to happen. Yuugi thought he remembered Yami saying that if Yuugi did take it off he could change to engraving and change his fate.

He said that speaking and writing things made them true.

"Yuugi, did you just hear a word I said?" Jounouchi asked, waving a hand in front of his friend's face.

Yuugi was pulled back into reality and he shook his head to clear his mind. "No, what did you say?" Yuugi asked.

"We were wondering what we were going to tell Honda's parents," Seto explained.

"We could just say that we're working on a big school project," Yuugi said with a shrug.

Seto and Jounouchi exchanged looks and shrugged as well. "It works," Seto said.

Jounouchi nodded. "But eventually someone is going to catch on. That excuse is going to get old soon and people will get suspicious. Considering that we have been skipping school, we probably don't have _that_ much homework to do."

Mai nodded. "What we need now is sleep. It has been one hectic night and I don't know about you guys, but I don't know how I am still standing."

Jounouchi deflated. "But," he said. "We just ordered a pizza."

Seto, Mai, and Yuugi all looked at him with astonishment. "What pizza place up is still open this early in the morning?" Seto asked.

Jounouchi smirked, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He elbowed Seto in the gut and winked at the taller man. "You're place." He then turned on his heel and walked away, laughter floating back to the three.

Seto stood there for a moment, the information still trying to register itself in his mind. Then you could see it all click in his eyes; Seto gaped. "Wait a minute!" he called, running to catch up with Jounouchi.

Mai and Yuugi laughed and went back to the living room where Seto and Jounouchi were bickering and Malik and Bakura were debating on which was funnier: the movie or the two boys fighting.

Yuugi smiled; for now, everything was alright.

_Later that night ~_

Yuugi awoke with a start and thought that he was awake but it still felt like he was in a dream.

Yami was leaning over him.

Yuugi shrieked and scrambled up in a sitting position. "Mai! Jounouchi!" he cried, hoping to wake either of the blonds. The two continued to sleep; Jounouchi snorted and rolled over on his stomach.

Yami smiled. "Don't bother, it's a dream. Come in the other room, where we can have some privacy."

Yuugi was wearing a baggy shirt and old pajama bottoms, but he felt as if he were wearing nothing under Yami's gaze. He pulled his blanket up higher, trying to hide himself fro Yami's ruby eyes. "You're crazy," he said softly. "You'll just kidnap me."

Yami smiled again and chuckled. "I won't, I promise." He held his hands up in front of him in a defensive manner.

Yuugi was still hesitant but Yami could always give him a clue about the base. They hadn't had much luck as to what it could be. And it was a dream, anyway. Yami couldn't really do anything to him. This gave him a little more confidence.

"Where are Honda and Anzu?" he asked.

Yami looked at him indifferently for a moment, as if he were contemplating the best ways to answer.

"Safe," Yami said.

"But where are they?"

Yami smirked wider; it made Yuugi want to slap him. He wagged his finger at Yuugi and made a 'tsk' sound. "That would be telling, Yuugi." He then looked Yuugi up and down and purred. "You know, you look as good as grunge as in anything else you wear."

Yuugi blushed and pulled the blanket up higher. It wasn't a dream, just as the night on the roof wasn't a dream.

Yami's eyes twinkled in amusement. Yuugi still couldn't describe Yami's eyes. They were just beautiful, that was the best way to say it. It was the kind of eyes you could get lost in when counting the swirls of color.

Yuugi absentmindedly twirled his ring again. He tugged at it but knew that it was useless. "Please," Yuugi pleaded to Yami, catching the older boy off guard. "Take this off."

Yami pouted and took Yuugi's hand, stroking his thumb over the gold. "But I like it; it suits you and brings out the color of your eyes."

Yuugi felt his face heat up and internally slapped himself for blushing over Yami. "But I don't like it." Yuugi looked up at Yami and the boy's face was expressionless. "I hate you, you know," Yuugi said, but it was pathetically weak. "You make me hate you."

For the slightest moment Yuugi saw hurt in Yami's eyes but it was soon gone, making Yuugi question if it were even there. "Is that what you're feeling? Hate?"

Yuugi was trembling, refusing to meet Yami's eyes; he was afraid that he would see that look in Yami's eyes again. Yuugi stubbornly nodded.

Gentler than Yuugi though possibly, Yami drew him into his arms, holding him like he was a delicate doll but Yami's arms were still like an iron trap. Yuugi was so close to him that he could fell the movement of Yami's breathing. That was strange, Yuugi always thought that just because Yami was a Shadow Man that he couldn't breathe, like vampires, but he breathed in and out like any normal human being.

Yuugi almost relaxed against Yami's warm chest, content in listening to his heartbeat and relish in the warmth and security of his arms wrapped around him. But then he realized this was Yami, and there was nothing warm or secure about him.

"What are you going to do?" Yuugi asked, just above a whisper, but Yami heard him.

"I'm going to kiss you…" he said simply. This was a slight relief to Yuugi; that was better than other things Yami did to him in the past. "…Until you faint."

Yami lowered his head and captured Yuugi's lips with his own. Their lips molded together and the kiss was much gentler than Yuugi thought it would be, though he had to resist the urge to rap his arms around Yami's neck. Yami pressed their bodies closer together and tried to deepen the kiss.

Yuugi pushed him away.

Surprisingly, Yami let him.

"You're evil," Yuugi said weakly, as if he were trying to convince himself instead of Yami. "How could you ever think I would love someone who is evil?" Unless Yuugi was evil too, which he was starting to wonder about…

Yami laughed. "There is no good and evil in the world, only black and white." Yami leaned in closer until Yuugi could feel the tickle of the other's breath against his lips. "But black and white on its own is so boring. If you mix them together you get so many colors…"

Before Yuugi could push Yami away, Yami backed off of his own. "Have you ever read 'The Human Condition' by Howard Nemerov?" Yami didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "It's about world and thought. World being the world and thought being—everything else." Yami smiled at Yuugi. "That's a hint by the way."

Yuugi still couldn't understand. He couldn't focus on the poem and he was suddenly strangely tired. His eyes were heavy and his whole body felt warm.

"You'd better wake up now," he vaguely heard Yami say.

"You mean I better get to sleep," Yuugi corrected sleepily.

Yuugi saw Yami smirk. "I mean wake up; unless you want to be late." He felt Yami's lips press tenderly on his forehead like a goodnight kiss. Yuugi's eyes slipped shut.

Some time later, he forced his eyes back open. He blinked; he was on his living room floor, surrounded by his friends, except Mai whose blankets had been thrown aside. Yami wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Yuugi pushed himself to sit on his knees and felt the smoothness of paper beneath his hand. He looked down and saw that it was a plain sheet of white paper with big letters written on it. He read over it quickly, his eyes caught on a certain word and he froze.

_Once I saw world and thought exactly meet,_

_But only a picture by Magritte . . ._

Yuugi dropped the piece of paper, it slipped through his numb fingers. He felt himself shaking uncontrollably. He hopped to his feet and started to shake everyone away. "Jounouchi! Seto! Bakura, Bakura wake up! Malik! It's Mai!"

-/-

**Ranko: Sorry for the sucky chapter guys! I hope you enjoyed it anyway!**

**Yuugi: Happy New Year!**

**Yami: 2013, baby! Yeah!**

**Ranko: Review if you want to see pictures of drunk Yami!**

**Yuugi: And don't forget to read and review, "When Life Gives You Lemons"!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ranko: Ugh…school is almost here, I'm dreading it so much…**

**Yuugi: You'll be okay, Ranko.**

**Ranko: Someone just kill me now!**

**Yami: Stop being a bitch and answer reviews!**

**Ranko: Fine, but I didn't get as many reviews as I had hoped for. Sad day…**

**Doragon-chan:**** Aw! Thank you! Please continue to review!**

**lilpopslash:**** I know! It is sad, why does Yami have to be so mean? And it's okay if you like Yami a little bit ^^ I'm sure everyone has a soft side for him, even I like him when he's not being a total bitch (Yami: Hey!). Please continue to review!**

**SincereJoyy:**** Thanks for the awesome review! I liked the moment between Mai and Yuugi too, and Jou and Seto are just so cute! Thanks for reading my new story, thanks for the review there too! Please continue to review!**

**AmerillaRose:**** Wow, you were just awesome in your review! Thank you and please continue to review!**

**raindropdew:**** Thanks for the review! I know, I would be too afraid to do anything if I was in their situation. I would probably want to be the first to go ^^" I know what you mean about school, break was fun while it lasted but now its time to go back to hell. Please continue to review!**

**PomPoms:**** I'm sorry but I laughed when I read your review. But its nice to now there is another Malec fangirl out there that feels my pain! Thanks for the kind words and I guess any chapter with Yami in it is good, huh? Please continue to review!**

**SokiKuro:**** Thanks for the awesome review! I'm glad that you liked the chapters so much and the nice puzzleshipping that I threw into the mix! Malik is here to stay…for now (dun, dun, dun!). I think that Set and Jou are cute together too, but it's not my favorite pairing (don't kill me puppyshippers!). Yeah, Mai has to go, unfortunately. And the reason I like your story is because it is fresh and different that has me guessing and biting my lip in anticipation! Please continue to review1**

**Yuugi: (sigh) Oh, Ranko, why must you answer so many reviews?**

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

Mai needed fresh air. She needed to get out of that stuffy house that they had locked themselves in for days, too afraid of the Shadow Men. She knew that it was dangerous to leave in the middle of the night all on her own without telling anyone, but she really needed this.

She felt free, in that house she was like a bird in a cage. She walked to the park that was only a few blocks away. She remembered pushing Yuugi on the swings when he was little, just playing with her little cousin all day until her parents called to get her. She wished she could go back to those times, when her cousin relied on her the most and before the stupid Shadow Men came into their lives.

And Yami…he was going to take Yuugi away from her. Mai chuckled to herself; as if she was going to let that happen.

She sat down on one of the old swings, just sitting there and enjoying the clear night sky. So far she had seen no Shadow Men, nothing to worry about. If she did see any of them though, she could take care of herself.

She looked up at the crescent moon, it was always her favorite phase of the moon. It was like the Cheshire cat smiling down at her; she found it strangely comforting and other worldly. Suddenly, a chilling breeze blew past her, lifting her hair and covering her eyes. When she pushed her hair out of her face, Yami was standing in front of her.

Her heart did a quick stutter and then went back to its normal beating. Seeing him there so suddenly of course startled her, but she wasn't afraid of him. He was staring at her blankly, his arms crossed over his chest. Mai felt a shiver run up her spine; she turned around and saw Marik and Akefia with their two pets by their side, the phantom wolf and snake.

She couldn't help but smile at the situation, releasing a small laugh. "Do you really need three Shadow Men and two Shadow creatures to catch one girl?" Mai shook her head and laughed again. She shrugged and stood up, the chains of the swing rattling. "Alright then, but just to let you know," she said, slipping into a battle stance, her violet eyes glowing. "I'm not going down without a fight."

_Elsewhere ~_

"Mai! Yuugi called, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Mai, where are you?" It was a quarter to six, over an hour later than it had been in Yuugi's dream with Yami. He had woken up with the clue about Mai, the only problem was that Mai was no where to be seen. They checked the entire apartment but she wasn't there.

Now they were out searching for the girl in the bitter cold morning weather with the threat of Shadow Men. Jou and Set suddenly came jogging back to Yuugi, Malik, and Bakura.

"We couldn't find her anywhere," Jou said, his breath a cloud of white in front of him.

"Where could she be?" Yuugi asked, more to himself than anyone else, wringing his hands.

Bakura raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Think, what is one place that Mai would go to that is close by?"

Yuugi was about to yell that he didn't know when it suddenly hit him. His face lit up with a smile as he felt a new hope that he knew where Mai was. "The park!" he cried, and then taking off down the street in the direction of the park.

His friends were hot on his heels and Yuugi silently prayed that his cousin was okay, that she was just sitting on the swing waiting for him, smiling happily with a warm greeting. "Mai!" he called when he was in the park. He immediately ran to the swings, where they always played when they were kids. "Mai, I'm here! Answer me!"

Yuugi turned around…and screamed. He instantly began to cry and dropped to his knees, shaking.

"Yuugi, what's wrong?" he heard Jounouchi cry from a distance away.

But Yuugi didn't answer; he was too busy staring at what was ahead of him. He vaguely heard his friends' footsteps as they came up behind him.

Sitting on the swing, seemingly waiting for him, was a little paper doll with violet eyes.

"I was too late," Yuugi gasped out between broken sobs. Mai's paper doll stared back at him, even her crayon eyes seemed to hold that determined spark that usually lit Mai's eyes.

Malik gaped and shook his head, clinging onto Bakura's shirt sleeve. Jounouchi looked around the swing at the kicked up dirt and scuff marks on the blacktop. "There was a fight," he said.

Seto just licked his dry lips and shivered.

"Everyone must have been asleep then," Bakura said. "Someone would have gotten up to check it out if they heard anything."

Jou kneeled down beside his friend and put a comforting hand on Yuugi's shaking shoulder. "Everything will be okay, Yuugi. Do you have the number of Mai's college, so we can call them and say that she'll be gone for a little while longer?" Yuugi silently shook his head, his lips trembling.

Bakura sighed. "We can't keep this up much longer, you realize this don't you? Eventually our parents will talk to each other and people will get suspicious. I mean, eventually they're going to put us in orange coveralls if we lose any more friends. We're going to go to prison! Now, come on, lets stop talking and get out of here."

Bakura turned around and began to walk away, Malik following close behind him but they stopped when they realized they weren't being followed. Jounouchi shared a helpless look with Seto and then looked down at his little buddy who hadn't spoken or moved at all.

Jounouchi took the doll and gently handed it to Yuugi; the boy held onto it tightly as if it were a security blanket. "Do you think you can stand?" Jounouchi whispered softly to his friend; Yuugi shook his head. Jounouchi sighed and scooped Yuugi up in his arms. "It's a good thing you're a little guy," Jounouchi said jokingly, hoping to lighten the mood; Yuugi didn't laugh.

"I don't see how we can go to school and not stick together," Malik was saying to Bakura when Seto and Jounouchi came up to them.

Bakura sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Then we'll have to take the day off." Bakura shrugged. "Gosh, too bad."

Seto gave the white-haired man a look. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Bakura flashed a cheeky smile in response.

"We have to figure out where the base is," a voice spoke up softly from Jounouchi's arms. All of Yuugi's friends turned in surprise when Yuugi spoke. Yuugi blushed when all eyes were on him; he could have handled the situation better, without screaming and crying and bursting into hysterics. "So far I haven't been able to figure out any of the clues."

"Because Yami wants it that way," Malik reassured. "It's not your fault. He's not playing the Game straight. We got the first clue in plenty of time, but it was too hard. The second clue was easy, but he didn't give us enough time." Yuugi had explained to everyone his dream while they were searching for Mai, excluding the kiss, of course.

"I should have woken up sooner," Yuugi said in a low voice, sinking back into his hole of depression.

"Stop blaming yourself for everything, it's not your fault." Surprisingly, Seto was the one who said this.

The loud grumble of someone's stomach growling cut through the friendly moment. All eyes turned towards Jounouchi, who was blushing furiously.

Bakura snickered. "I guess we should probably get food before anything else."

Malik grinned widely. "I have a better idea, why don't we see Ishizu at the museum?"

"This early?" Jounouchi asked, shocked.

Malik rolled his eyes. "Not everyone sleeps like you do, Jou. Besides, she can probably give us breakfast."

"I'm in," Jounouchi said immediately.

"You're right, Malik," Bakura said. "We should go see Ishizu. Maybe she knows what we could do. She always seems to have an idea."

They all walked to the museum, Yuugi could walk on his own then. When they got to the museum, Yuugi would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit freaked out. The last time he had been in this place, it had been during the Game. Malik's nightmare still made him shudder when he thought of those men's deformed faces.

Malik led them down a hall that Yuugi was familiar with from the nightmare. Finally, the blond stopped in front of a door and knocked. On the front of this door was a tag that read: DIRECTOR.

Not a moment later, the door swung open and Ishizu's tall frame stood in the doorway. She looked surprised for a moment to see teenagers standing outside her door and then smiled when she saw her brother. "Malik, what are you doing here?" she asked. "Come in, all of you." She took a step back to clear the doorway to allow everyone to come in.

"Good morning," Malik said to his sister. "Is it okay if we get some breakfast?"

Ishizu laughed lightly. "It's funny you mention breakfast. I just went out to get donuts for everyone but I think that some of the workers here can go without the sweets. Help yourselves," Ishizu said kindly, gesturing to the box of donuts on her desk.

Jounouchi immediately attacked the donuts; Seto had to pull him back so the rest of the group could have some. After everyone had had their fill and Ishizu poured herself a cup of coffee, Malik spoke up. "Actually, sister, that isn't the real reason we came here."

Ishizu raised a delicate eyebrow. "Malik, have you been telling lies?"

Bakura snorted out a laugh. "Yep, our whole life these past few days has been a tissue of fibs."

Ishizu threw Bakura a look and the boy returned it back full-force. Ishizu sighed and turned away, looking at her brother. "Now, tell me."

And it all spilled out. They told her everything, from the original Game with the paper doll house, Ryou's death, Yuugi's promise to Yami, Soren, the new Game Yami told Yuugi, and then their three friends disappearing.

All throughout the tale, Ishizu did not react in any way, just sat and listened patiently. When they finished, she sat there for a moment and drank her coffee. Yuugi had expected Ishizu to think them insane, call the police, freak out, laugh, even say something as trivial as disobeying their parents. But she didn't do any of those things.

After several minutes of sitting in silence, she said, "I had a dream the other night about a Hausa story my mother used to tell me. It's been a long time since I've thought of this story. Maybe I meant to tell it to you."

"You mean, for us?" Yuugi asked.

Ishizu nodded her head and continued. "The story is about a boy and a girl who fall in love. But one day, as they were sitting on their mat together, Iblis came along and cut off the boy's head and killed him."

"Sounds like a happy story," Seto mumbled under his breath, Jounouchi elbowed his side.

"Who's Iblis?" Yuugi asked.

"Iblis," Ishizu began, "is the prince of darkness, the prince of the aljunnu—"

"Genies," Malik translated simply.

Ishizu nodded her head. "Yes, now where was I?" she asked, more to herself than anyone else; she put a finger to her chin in thought.

"Something about chopping the boy's head off?" Bakura said helpfully.

Ishizu snapped her fingers. "Oh, yes! Anyway, Iblis killed the boy and the girl could do nothing but sit on the mat and cry. After a while, the boy's parents came and they cried as well. Then Iblis came back, he waved his hand and in front of the boy appeared a river of fire, water, and cobras. He said to the boy's mother, "If you want your son back, all you have to do is swim through the three rivers to get him."

"Yeah, right," Jounouchi mumbled under his breath, this time, it was Seto's turn to elbow the blond in his side.

"But," Ishizu continued, "the boy's mother was afraid. She turned to her husband but he was also afraid. Then the girl jumped up and said that she would do it; naturally, she was afraid but her love for the boy was stronger than her fear. She jumped in the river of fire and it burned her. She jumped in the river of water and it choked her. She jumped into the river of snakes and they struck her, but the girl managed to stumble through them and the next thing she knew she had reached the boy. As soon as she touched the boy, his head flew back on his shoulders and jumped up, alive and well; Iblis disappeared. I assume the two got married but my mother never told me." Ishizu shrugged and resumed drinking her coffee.

"That's a lovely story but how does that relate to us?" Bakura asked.

Ishizu shrugged. "I don't know, it could have no meaning to you at all. The point is, now you've heard it."

Bakura scowled. "Thank you, oh wise one."

Ishizu smiled around the rim of her coffee cup. "My pleasure."

"Maybe it just means love is stronger than fear," Yuugi said softly.

"But what if you're love is fear?" Malik suggested, looking at Yuugi. The shorter boy flinched and looked down at his feet.

"Maybe it means that you can't trust your parents," Jounouchi tried, this startled a laugh out of Ishizu.

"I think I like Yuugi's interpretation better. But as I said, there could be no meaning. Or possibly it's just a story about the powers of good and evil?"

"Do you believe in good and evil?" Yuugi asked.

"Very much so, yes," Ishizu answered pleasantly. "And I also believe that it must be fought personally sometimes, if you care enough to do it, that is."

Bakura shrugged. "Well, you know what they say about kids our age. That we don't care about right or wrong or anything. That we don't even care about the future."

Yuugi shook his head. "No, that's not true. We do care, or else we wouldn't be doing all of this. You care, Bakura, more than anybody else. You pretend you don't, but you do. That is why Ryou loves—" Yuugi cut himself off and looked back down at his feet; he felt himself choking up again. "We're going to find Ryou," Yuugi said reassuringly, though he didn't know who he was reassuring, Bakura or himself.

"I know," Bakura said stiffly, looking away.

"I wish that I could help…" Ishizu said sadly.

"It's our fight anyway," Yuugi said. "He won't let anyone else into the Game. He said only the original players."

Ishizu looked directly at Yuugi; her eyes were very gentle and almost sad. "I think if anyone can find your friends, it will be you, Yuugi."

Yuugi gulped. "I'll try." When the woman turned away to talk to her brother, Yuugi mumbled under his breath, "But at what cost?"

After their visit with Ishizu, the group of friends went back to Yuugi's apartment. It was starting to look like the aftermath of a long party. The furniture was pushed up against the very far walls to make room for the sleeping bags and mattresses. The couch was a nest of rumpled blanket. Empty energy drink cans were strewn across the room along with books, clothes, and stacks of dirty dishes.

If Yuugi's grandpa were to come home now, he might just die of a heart attack.

Jounouchi came into the room with an armful of energy drinks and began to pass them out to everyone. "Okay, what about the base?" he asked, plopping down on the couch next to Seto and handing the man a drink.

"Good boy," Seto said, patting Jounouchi's head.

Jounouchi's left eye twitched. "I'm not a dog, you jerk!"

"Focus!" Bakura snapped.

"We don't have enough information," Yuugi cut in before things could get ugly. It would be difficult without Mai here to keep everyone from killing each other. "He hasn't told me enough." Yuugi began to fiddle with his ring and chided himself for doing that again. "I've been thinking of abandoned buildings or things that Yami could use to hold them, somewhere around this area. But that doesn't seem right," Yuugi said as an afterthought.

"In mysteries things are always hidden in the least likely place, or the obvious," Malik said thoughtfully, opening the can of pure caffeine and taking a long drink from it. "You know, because that is the last place that you look. Could it be the paper house?"

Yuugi shook his head. "It was trashed, I don't think anyone could fit in there anymore. And there is no way to get in on our own, Yami helped us the last time, remember?"

'Okay, that was a stupid question to ask, of course they remember,' Yuugi thought to himself.

Yuugi just knew that the base wasn't in the paper house. Yuugi also knew that Yami wouldn't find the Game amusing unless there was a _chance_ of them finding the base. He would put it someplace they could get to…if they were smart enough to look there.

"I guess the game store you met Yami in is too obvious?" Seto asked, looking at his drink distastefully.

"Too obvious and _gone_," Yuugi said. "It's just a mural now." Yuugi shook his head. "Yami would put it someplace clever."

"Do you have an idea, Jounouchi?" Bakura asked, leaning his elbows on his knees. "If you think you know something…"

Jounouchi shook his head. "No," he said and quickly took a long gulp of his drink to signal he was done talking about it.

"Let's go back to the beginning," Malik said.

Like that helped any. They talked uselessly about what happened that morning and the story that Ishizu told them until Jounouchi groaned and leaned back on the couch. He had just finished his third energy drink. "I'm starving," he whined.

"What else is new?" Seto asked, rolling his eyes.

"I'm getting hungry too," Bakura said, rubbing his stomach; Malik nodded in agreement.

Yuugi shrugged. "I guess we could you something to eat. We haven't gotten a clue yet so it should be safe to go out. Seto, go with Jou to get some food."

Seto got to his feet and crossed his arms. "Fine, come on, mutt."

Jounouchi's face turned red from rage. "I told you, I'm not a dog!" he yelled before he and Seto stomped down the stairs and left.

Malik, Bakura, and Yuugi just sat in silence for a few minutes after they had left. Yuugi stared aimlessly out the window. They were stuck, no closer to figuring out where the base was than they been two days ago. And they were all exhausted. Yuugi's eyelids felt like lead and the afternoon sun was so warm on his face. It wouldn't hurt he closed his eyes for a minute…

Suddenly, all the light went dark.

Yuugi snapped his eyes open. There was a mist coating the window, preventing him from seeing out. Yuugi just stared at it, his pulse quickening. It wasn't a mist, Yuugi realized. It was ice.

Touched by the Frost King, Yuugi's mother used to say when the windows iced up like that in the winter. Yuugi remembered he used to love to trace things with his finger in the frost.

Something was appearing on the window as if traced by an unseen finger. A letter.

_**L. **_

Yuugi couldn't breath. His mouth was dry. He turned to see if Malik and Bakura could see this but they were no longer sitting on the couch; he heard their voices drift from the kitchen.

It continued.

_**L. I. T. T. L. E…**_

The letters appeared slowly on the icy window.

_**J. A. C. K. H. O. R. N. E. R. S. A. T. I. N. T. H. E. C. O. R. N. E. R…**_

Yuugi watched, dumbfounded and in slight awe. He couldn't seem to make himself to move. It was so strange to be sitting there on a nice sunny day and watch something that just couldn't happen.

_**E. A. T. I. N. G. H. I. S. C. H. R. I. S. T. M. A. S. P. I. E…**_

Yuugi had a terrifying thought for a moment that it was him. He was Jack Horner. It only made sense, he was all alone and the clue was being delivered to him personally. Yuugi shook his head. 'No, it's impossible,' he thought, to reassure himself, but his heart still beat wildly.

_**H. E. P. U. T. I. N. H. I. S. T. H. U. M. B. A. N. D. P. U. L. L. E. D. O. U. T. A. P. L. U. M. B…**_

Yuugi waited anxiously on the edge of his seat, he recognized the rhyme; why couldn't he think of the end of it?

_**A. N. D. S. A. I. D. W. H. A. T. A. G. O. O. D. B. O. Y. A. M. I.**_

Yuugi frowned when the rhyme ended and the last four letters was like Yami's signature. It wasn't about Yuugi, so who was it talking about.

It suddenly hit Yuugi like a ton of bricks. He stumbled to his feet; he couldn't breathe. He backed as far away from the window as he could. "Marik! Bakura!" Yuugi cried. "Come here!"

Good boy, Seto called Jounouchi a "good boy."

"_Good boy," Seto said, patting Jounouchi's head. _

_Jounouchi's left eye twitched. "I'm not a dog, you jerk!"_

-/-

**Ranko: I like this chapter! I hope you guys liked it too!**

**Yami: Oh no, Jounouchi is going to get it. **

**Yuugi: Do you guys want to play a game?**

**Yami: Shouldn't that be my line?**

**Ranko: Leave in your review where you think Yami's base is and amuse me!**

**Yuugi: So click that beautiful button down below and leave a review for us!**

**Yami: And don't forget to read and review "When Life Gives You Lemons!"**


	13. Chapter 13

**Ranko: Oh my, goodness! I can't believe how late it has been since I have updated! I am so sorry, guys! You have no idea how busy I have been lately.**

**Yuugi: Oh, it's okay, Ranko!**

**Yami: It hasn't even been that long, Ranko. You update every week, you're about on time. **

**Ranko: I guess so…let's answer some reviews!**

**raindropdew:**** I know, I can't help but feel bad for poor little Yuugi even though I'm the one doing it to him. And yes, I think that I would run away too if letters starting appearing on my window, but then again, I think that I would run away screaming if a Shadow Man was stalking me too. Good guess on where the base is, but now quite ;) Please continue to review!**

**SokiKuro:**** I really liked your guess! I thought that it was funny that the base might be at school and they don't even attend school very often, irony! Anyway, Ishizu might be a Shadow Hunter, I didn't really think of it but I don't think she will be. Please continue to review!**

**lilpopsplash:**** Oh, you better watch out, Yami. This girl is going to come after you and beat your ass! Please continue to review!**

** 1:**** Since you said please…Yami will not beat up Jou, but he will take him away. Please continue to review!**

**Storm15:**** Your review made me so happy! It really made me feel loved and I'm glad you liked the Forbidden Game series so much, I fell it love with the series by reading a crossover with another series too. My friend and I were so upset at the ending, mine won't be as bad ;) Please continue to review!**

**AmerillaRose:**** You made me feel so loved! I'm glad that you loved the chapter so much; it was one of my favorites too. Unfortunately Ryou will not be coming back this time. Another person was confused by that too but I just worded it strangely. Please continue to review!**

**sea girl:**** Your review made me so happy! And because you asked for the update with ice cream and sprinkles, here is the sugarcoated update! Please continue to review!**

**SincereJoyy:**** I wish as I was talented as to make up that poem by myself. It is actually an old nursery rhyme that I borrowed called 'Jack Horner.' You named all the people that are still in the Game, but someone will probably disappear in this chapter. And no one will fill in for Ryou, but Ryou could never be replaced ;) You don't bother me with the questions, I love questions! Please continue to review!**

**Yuugi: Ranko twin does not own anything involving Yu-Gi-Oh or the Forbidden Game series, this story is not for profit!**

**Ranko: That is the proper way to do a disclaimer! Take that, Yami!**

**Yami: Enjoy! I said it before you, Ranko!**

-/-

Seto shook his head as Jounouchi impatiently jumped around the pizza parlor, waiting for their order. The blond was cursing under his breath and asking, "When the hell is out food going to get here?"

They had walked all the way to Jounouchi's neighborhood just to get a pizza that Jounouchi said were "the best in the world." He couldn't believe the blond sometimes. Despite himself, Seto found everything Jounouchi did…cute. And it frustrated him because he didn't understand how he found Jounouchi's traits appealing that Seto usually found annoying.

"Finally!" Jounouchi shouted as a man stepped up to the counter and handed the blond a pizza box. "Thanks," Jounouchi said half-heartedly.

The heavy set man working behind the counter grunted in response and then turned around and disappeared in the back room.

Seto sighed and held the door open for Jounouchi. It had gotten surprisingly dark and Seto knew that they hadn't been waiting in the pizza place for that long. "I hope that this pizza is as good as you said it was, or I'm going to be pissed you made me wait for a half-assed pizza."

Jounouchi snorted. "Calm down; you're such a diva."

Seto ignored Jounouchi's comment; he was too busy looking around. He looked in through all the windows to stores and saw no one in any of the buildings. They were walking the streets alone, not even a stoner lay passed out in an alley.

Seto checked his watch; it was mid afternoon and it was already twilight…a very unnatural twilight. And then Seto heard it, a low, guttural _growl_. He looked at Jounouchi who was drooling over the pizza, not seeming to notice the sound of the rather loud growling.

"If you're so hungry Jounouchi, just eat the pizza now?" Seto said impatiently, but all of his nerves were on edge.

Jounouchi blinked up at the taller man. "What are you talking about?"

"You're stomach was growling, wasn't it?" Seto asked, he prayed that Jounouchi would agree with him and say that the growling did come from his stomach.

Sadly, Jounouchi shook his head. Seto's eyes widened and he looked over his shoulder, Jounouchi did the same and the boy gasped. Behind them, a few feet back, was a swirling vortex floating in midair. And stepping out of it was a phantom wolf. Half of its body was out and it was trying to pull its other half out of the vortex; its yellow eyes bore into both of the boy's particularly Jou's.

Seto grabbed Jounouchi's bicep, the blond dropped the pizza box. "_Run_!" Seto shouted and started to sprint away from that _thing_. Seto had longer legs than Jounouchi's but the blond managed to keep up with him. Seto didn't dare let go of Jou's arm though.

Seto could hear the snarling in his ear, as if that phantom wolf was right behind him. He hoped it wasn't but he didn't dare look back. He heard Jounouchi panting beside him, more from fear than actual exertion.

And like a scene from a horrible movie, the toe of Jounouchi's old sneakers got caught on a crack in the ground, tripping the boy. Seto immediately halted and turned back around to grab Jou. He grabbed Jou's arms to pull him back up, the same time the teeth of the phantom wolf latched onto the boy's pant leg and pulled him back down.

Jounouchi let out a shout of surprise and he proceeded to be tugged in opposite directions.

"No, you won't take him from me!" Seto cried unintentionally as the wolf began to overpower him. Seto held onto Jounouchi's arms with all his might and pulled. "If you are going to take him, you're going to have to take me too!"

And then Seto heard a savage hissing in his ear.

_Elsewhere ~_

"How the hell are we going to find them?" Malik yelled in frustration. "We don't even know where they went!" The boy almost broke down in tears at that moment.

Yuugi wasn't in any better state, he was just as distressed as Malik and his hands were shaking. "I think I know where they are!" He then took off into a sprint down the street. If he knew Jounouchi as well as he thought he did, he knew the one place he always went to get food when he was starving.

And that's where he saw it, a few blocks away from Jounouchi's favorite pizza parlor. There were two paper dolls sitting side by side, holding each other, sitting next to a dropped pizza box. Around them was a scorched circle.

Yuugi dropped to his knees and picked up the two dolls. Just as he thought, they were the dolls Seto and Jou used in the first Game.

_Later ~_

The three that remained sat around the table, staring at the paper dolls of their friends, the only thing they had left of them. "He's going to get us all," Malik said depressingly.

Bakura banged his fist on the table, making the paper dolls fall on their backs from their sitting positions. "The clues aren't fair. We didn't have enough time to find them and we started looking for when right when we got the clue." Bakura rested his head in his hands. "We didn't have enough time, this isn't fair. We're never going to find the base," he whispered to himself.

Yuugi shook his head and stared into the waxy eyes of the dolls of his friends. He looked at his cousin's doll again. He figured that if Mai couldn't defeat the Shadow Men, none of them could. But that didn't matter anymore, none of it mattered.

Bakura growled and stood up so fast that his chair toppled over, making Malik flinch. "Is anyone going to say something or am I just going to talk to myself?"

Yuugi turned his tired eyes up to too Bakura straight in the eye. He looked so angry, but Yuugi knew that he was just as tired as he was. Yuugi finally shrugged helplessly. "What is there to say?"

Bakura opened his mouth to say something, most likely rude but Malik shook his head, stopping Bakura. He snapped his mouth shut and stomped to the living room, the sound of a T.V. turning on was the only noise that filled the entire house.

Yuugi just stared at a blank wall, sitting next to Malik on the couch. It was all falling down; all of it was just falling apart. And Bakura was right. They weren't going to find the base, not with the information they had now. They needed more clues.

Yuugi never thought he'd say this, but he was glad when Yami showed himself to Yuugi in his dream that night. He was past being afraid of Yami every time he saw him, like he said, it all didn't matter anymore.

It had taken him a while to fall asleep. He couldn't get over the empty room. It used to be full of his friends and they didn't have enough space to fit them all. Now it was barren, with no use for all the sleeping bags and air mattresses anymore. He thought he would never go to sleep that night, then he closed his eyes and he must have drifted off.

When he opened his eyes again, he opened them to his dream world.

He was standing in a white room. Across from him, stood Yami, dressed in all white, standing behind a long table. On the table was a model of a town, no…a neighborhood. It was Yuugi's neighborhood connected to Jounouchi's; Yuugi saw his house in the model. He saw all the places they had been in the model.

Yami took a small figure of a wolf and put it somewhere in the model. He looked up at Yuugi and smiled. Yuugi didn't smile back.

He looked down the model and saw that Yami had put the wolf down in Jounouchi's neighborhood, in front of the pizza parlor Jounouchi and Seto went to. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I thought only Marik and Akefia could control the wolf and snake."

"Akefia and Marik are my brothers, Yuugi," Yami explained, "the three of us are one in the same."

Yuugi decided to ponder that thought later. "Is this how you, or they, control where the wolf and snake go?"

Yami shrugged. "Possibly." He grinned wider. "What's black inside, white outside, and hot?"

Yuugi sighed; he really did not want to deal with another one of Yami's riddled right now. "What?" he asked tiredly.

Yami either did not notice Yuugi's tone or chose to ignore it. "A wolf in sheep's clothing."

Yuugi quirked an eyebrow. "Like you?"

Yami clicked his tongue and shook his head. "No, no, dear Yuugi. I am a wolf in wolf's clothing." He looked up at Yuugi and there was a spark in his ruby eyes.

Yuugi felt an unbelievable wave of anger pass through him. He couldn't believe there was once a time he thought Yami to be _human_, that he actually pitied him once. Yuugi couldn't believe that he once…Yuugi decided not to finish that thought.

"What do you think of the Game?" Yami asked, spreading out his arms.

Yuugi crossed his arms and gave Yami a look. "It isn't fair. And I don't know your definition of _sporting_ but it is far different than mine. You told us that we had a chance to find your base, or else the game wouldn't be fun. Well, there is no chance that we find the base."

It was Yami's turn to quirk an eyebrow. "You think you don't have chance?"

Yuugi shook his head. "Not with the information we have."

Yami threw his head back and laughed. It was a joyful, happy sound that would make Yuugi smile if he wasn't so upset. "You want a hint?"

Yuugi nodded. "Yes, and you'd give it to me if you wanted to be fair but you won't." Yuugi unintentionally let the last half of his sentence turn into words rather than them staying inside his head.

Yami looked genuinely hurt. "You really think that I'm an ogre, don't you? I'm really no so bad. If I was, I could manipulate the Game so I couldn't lose. For instance…" Yami snapped his finger and the model on the table changed from Domino to an Egyptian setting.

Yami lifted the wolf and held it over a large tent. Standing next to it was a short, stocky figure. Yuugi recognized the black bandana. "Grandpa!" he cried. Yuugi looked up at Yami. "You wouldn't! You said—!"

"I said I'd keep the Game to the original players," Yami said, his eyelids drooped to shade his eyes. He snapped his fingers and the model changed back to Domino. "I'm just showing you what I _could_ do. See? I'm not so bad after all."

"Soren wasn't a player," Yuugi said, a large lump formed in his throat at the thought of the boy.

Yami waved his hand in a dismissing manner. "Collateral."

"And Haga and Ryuzaki?"

Yami grinned; it was the kind of grin that sent chills running up Yuugi's spine. "They were player; they played their own game, and lost."

Yuugi looked down at the model and spotted the park by his house. "Were you the one who made those kids play lambs and monsters?" Yuugi thought of little Ryou describing the gruesome game. "All that violence—were you influencing them?"

Yami put a hand to his chest and made a mock hurt expression. "Me? They don't need me for that, Yuugi. Children are like that naturally, their games are that way. Haven't you noticed?"

Unfortunately, Yuugi had, but he didn't say anything; he turned away.

"War and hunting and chasing—that's life, no one can escape that," Yami said. He was standing right behind Yuugi now; their bodies weren't even a breath away.

Yami leaned in until Yuugi could feel his breath on his ear. "And why would we? There is excitement in the chase, Yuugi. It sends chills through the body…"

Yuugi had to step away. His blood was tingling. He didn't know what it was about Yami, but every time he spoke, it send a chill up Yuugi's spine.

Yami followed him; Yuugi did not dare turn around. "Love and death are everything. Danger is the best part of the game. I thought you would know that by now, Yuugi."

Yuugi didn't say anything. He did know that, it was the wild part inside of him that Yami put there. The part of his being that he knew belonged to Yami.

"And I thought you were going to give me a hint," Yuugi said, there was a force behind his words that didn't fit in how he was feeling inside.

"Everything comes at a price, Yuugi."

The smaller boy gulped. "Give me the hint first."

"You can find your friends in a familiar room," Yami said.

Yuugi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion; that was completely vague. "What kind of room? Have I seen it?"

"Yes."

"Have I been through it?"

"Yes…and no."

Yuugi had enough; he finally turned around so Yami could see the anger in his eyes. "What kind of answer is that?"

"It's clear as black and white," Yami said with a smile at his own personal joke. "If you know where to look that is. Now," Yami began, taking a step closer to Yuugi and wrapping his arms around the boy's waist, their bodies pressed against each other. "The price." Yami bent his head down.

It took all of Yuugi's self control to remain rigid and unresponsive in Yami's arms. His lips were a breath away from Yuugi's. Yami sighed and stepped away from Yuugi when he realized that Yuugi wasn't going to react to him.

"Yuugi, let's stop playing, we don't need to play this Game anymore. You have your friends back—you want Mai back, don't you?"

"I'll get her back," Yuugi said, his voice shaking. "I'll get them back my way, without your help. I thought I made that clear in the last Game we played."

Yami chuckled. "I admire your confidence, Yuugi, but you can't win against me. I'm the master of players."

Yuugi decided to ignore that comment. "A room I've been in but haven't been in? A room that needs to be looked at in the right way?"

Yami smiled and nodded. "A room in the shadows. But you won't find it until I put you in it."

'We'll see about that,' Yuugi thought before things started to get blurry. The dream was fading.

Before Yuugi woke up completely, Yami put a pure red rose in Yuugi's hands. "Here, to remember me by." Yuugi recognized it as the rose he gave Yuugi when they were in Anzu's nightmare.

There was a slip of paper tied around the thorn free stem.

Yuugi knew in his mind it was another clue and this time he would wake up right away. And he did, when he woke up the rose was lying on his pillow. He almost crushed it when he quickly sat up.

Bakura and Malik were both there, thankfully, and Yuugi reached over to shake their shoulders to wake them up.

"Wake up, guys, I have the next clue."

Yuugi untied the paper from the stem as Malik rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked over the boy's shoulder to read the clue.

_L'amour vient après la tempete_

Yuugi exchanged a confused look with Malik. "Please tell me you speak French."

Malik shook his head sadly. "This isn't fair, none of us speak French."

"Life isn't fair," Yuugi said, more to himself than Malik. "I'm sure if we had Seto or Mai they would be able to translate it. I think Mai once told me "après" means "after," or was it "apple?" It was come kind of cognate."

"Maybe Ishizu might know something," Malik said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

Bakura didn't even bother to join the conversation, he just stayed asleep. Yuugi was about to go wake him up when Malik suddenly started talking.

"Hey, sis," he began. Ishizu said something and Malik nodded. "Yeah, yeah, listen, we need your help trying to translate something, can you help us?" Another pause as Ishizu answered. "It's in French…you can help us? That's great! Um, I think this is how you say it: "L'amour…vient…après…la…tempete."

There was a longer pause; Yuugi heard the beating of rain on the roof and them there was a flash of lightning.

"What is that supposed to mean? It doesn't make any sense!" Malik cried. Yuugi gave him a look and Malik turned to Yuugi and said, "It means, "love comes after the storm?"

Yuugi's eyes widened and he smiled. He shot up and grabbed the phone out of Malik's hand. "Thank you, Ishizu!" He then hung up and handed the phone back to Malik.

"Do you know what that means?" Malik questioned, seeing Yuugi's excited expression.

"No, but it has to do with a storm and there is a storm outside, so none of us can go outside. We've done it, Malik! We've finally done it!" Yuugi embraced Malik excitedly. "We have everyone here, safe and sound! We can actually win this one!"

Yuugi's good mood suddenly deflated. They had been yelling for quit some time and Bakura still hadn't woken up. Yuugi exchanged a look with Malik as the blond realized that too. They rushed over to where Bakura was supposed to be sleeping and pulled the blankets away. There was a bundle of blankets and pillows underneath.

"Where is Bakura?" Yuugi asked to no one in particular.

Malik shook his head and put his head in his hands, he began to shake with retrained sobs.

Yuugi's eyes widened. "The clue is about Bakura. The saying is usually the calm after the storm. But love…come on, we have to find him," Yuugi said, rising to his feet and pulled Malik up with him.

"Do you know where Bakura is?" Malik asked, unshed tears in his eyes.

"I think I might," Yuugi said. Bakura was still in love with Ryou, so he had to be some place that meant something to Ryou.

'But we may already me too late,' Yuugi thought to himself.

-/-

**Ranko: I have to admit, I rather like this chapter. **

**Yami: Ranko has no imagination so she needs your help coming up with someplace that might be special to Ryou.**

**Yuugi: Leave you suggestions in your review and make Ranko twin happy!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ranko: Yo, yo, yo!**

**Yami: What is your problem?**

**Yuugi: Ranko is in a good mood because of all the awesome feedback from her lovely reviewers!**

**Ranko: Wait! I just realized that this story is going to end soon! In like…two chapters! Holy cow! How time flies! **

**Yami: Let's just answer from reviews.**

**hikari no senshi17:**** I'm happy to know that I'm not the only one getting upset at Yami! Oh my goodness, you are so close to the actual location of the base! You have no idea! You can have half a cookie for that amazing guess! Please continue to review!**

**raindropdew:**** That's what I was thinking of where Bakura would go too! Thanks for the help! Dang, your guess is so close to what the actual base is! But not quite! Good luck on the exams and please continue to review!**

** 1:**** Ain't it just! Please continue to review!**

**TheGuardian'sOfTheFishBowl:**** I loved your review so much! It made me laugh when you called me a demoness, and I thought in my mind, "Thank you!" Anyway, I hope that you are reading this now because that means I still have you guys in my story! Please continue to review!**

**sea girl:**** You make me feel so loved! I'm happy you love my little story so much and I can tell by your review that you also love my updates! I appreciate your enthusiasm and please continue to review!**

**Pharaoh Silver:**** Yay! You are back! And for all of the people who want Yami to win, raise their hands (Ranko raises hand). Also, Ryou-bunny is certainly **_**not**_** dead ;) Please continue to review!**

**Storm15:**** Ah! Your review made me happy! I know that it is bad, but I usually don't review most stories, especially those that haven't updated in a long time. ****Seto is a diva but that is why we all love him! It is a good thing that I will be ending it differently, I don't want to get hurt =3 Please continue to review!**

**Yuugi: My favorite part of the chapters is when you answer reviews.**

**Ranko: That's because I don't abuse you in that part of the chapter.**

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

"Damn it," Bakura muttered under his breath as the rain began to come down harder and colder. He pulled his hood over his head and pressed it against his face to shield himself from the wind.

He knew that he shouldn't have come out here in the middle of the night with no one else to back him up in case he had an encounter with a Shadow Man, namely Akefia; he hated that man so much. But despite that, Bakura felt surprisingly safe.

He had a dream that night; it was about Ryou, again. However, this dream was different than the other dreams he had had about the boy. Ryou was dressed entirely in white and standing in an empty, blank room. He looked scared for some reason and kept looking over his shoulder.

"Bakura," he said. "Listen to me! Go to the rooftop at the high school. You have to trust me! Please, go!"

So Bakura went, just as Ryou said. He didn't think for a minute that it was the Shadow Men manipulating his dream; he knew it in his gut that it was real. Bakura made it to the high school and broke the lock open. Any normal person would be afraid to walk in an empty school in the middle of a rainy night, but Bakura pressed on, climbing up the stairs to the roof.

When Bakura made it to the roof, it felt like the rain was coming down even harder and he could hear the faint sound of the storm sirens. He didn't know why Ryou wanted him to be up here, he didn't specify. For all Bakura knew, this could be where Yami's base was, but he highly doubted that.

Bakura walked to the railing at the edge of the roof. His hood flew off his head, his hair whipping around his face, and his thin jacket flapping at his sides. This was the place where Ryou kissed him for the first time; Bakura chuckled as he remembered how Ryou fled afterwards.

Ryou was only in middle school at that time, wasn't he? He walked all the way to the high school, which was in the opposite direction of his house just so he could confess his feelings to Bakura.

"_Bakura!_"

The man in questioned jumped in surprise; that was Ryou's voice. It was coming from all around him, muted by the rain. Bakura began to look around in all directions and called out, "Ryou! Where are you?"

"…_Kura!_"

"Ryou!" Bakura cried again, looking around more desperately. The rain had become like a curtain; he could barely see what was in front of him but he could swear that he saw an outline of a person.

"…_Ra!_"

And suddenly Bakura was reminded of the story Mai told them, about the boy who disappeared in one of those voids. His mother went to the spot he disappeared each day and his voice slowly grew fainter and fainter each day until it faded away completely.

Bakura felt his heart clench in horror. He ran head long through the rain, not caring that he could possibly even run off the roof. "Ryou!"

His voice echoed back at him, except this voice was much more mocking and cocky. "Ryou!"

Bakura whipped around and saw glowing yellow eyes cut through the gray sheet of rain that was still falling down.

It was the phantom snake.

He felt something similar to someone tapping him on his shoulder. He turned back around and it was like staring into a mirror. Except this cruel reflection was tanner than he was and had a scar running down his left eye. Two pairs of burgundy eyes locked and Bakura growled, his canines peaking out. His reflection's canines peaked out when he smirked.

"Isn't that just the sweetest thing," Akefia asked, still grinning cruelly. "Ryou! Ryou!" Akefia laughed. "Pathetic," he spit out.

Bakura swung his fist out to hit the man in front of him but it went right through him, like the Shadow Man didn't exist.

Akefia appeared again behind him; Bakura spun around. "Let me guess," Akefia began, "you came here because you had a dream about Ryou who told you to come, am I right?" Akefia laughed again.

Bakura swung again, missed, and advanced forward to try and hit the man again. This became a pattern as Akefia continued to taunt him. Swing, miss, step. Swing, miss, step.

If Ryou were here he would probably tell Bakura to control his anger because Akefia wasn't worth the time or energy. But honestly, Bakura didn't care at the moment. All he saw was red from rage.

"Honestly," Akefia said as he continued to taunt Bakura. "How gullible can you be? Ryou is our victim in the Shadow Realm, did it ever occur to you that my brothers and I could have created that dream so you could come here."

Bakura growled and took a few more steps forward as Akefia continued to take steps back. "No!" he cried, refusing to believe that.

"Why? It makes perfect sense, you are the only strong one in the group left, we need to get rid of you if we want to win this Game," Akefia said as he nonchalantly cleaned his fingernails.

And it all hit Bakura like a ton of bricks. He had left Malik and Yuugi all alone without any defense. Yami or Marik could easily come in and hurt them, or take them away. He had fallen into the Shadow Men's trap and foolishly went up to a roof in the middle of the night during a rainstorm, where he could barely see two feet in front of him. And he had been following Akefia to the edge of the roof.

Akefia smirked as he saw the understanding on Bakura's face. He disappeared in front of Bakura and reappeared behind him. "You'll be with your beloved Ryou soon," he whispered in Bakura's ear and pushed him over the edge of the roof.

_Meanwhile ~_

"I really hope that we're not too late," Malik huffed as he and Yuugi sprinted across the wet sidewalk to the school.

Yuugi didn't want to even think about that at the moment. He wasn't afraid at this point, more furious than anything else. He was mad at Bakura who had foolishly gone outside, even after what had happened to all their friends. Yuugi pushed his damp bangs away from his face. "Just keep running."

They made it to the high school and they saw that the front lock to the school had been broken. Yuugi gripped the handle and was about to pull it open when Malik put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "What?" Yuugi nearly snapped out. Malik simply shook his head and pointed to something that was sitting on the ground beside the door.

Yuugi's eyes widened when he saw a white haired paper doll with a drawn on scowl that was holding a folded up paper heart.

Yuugi felt his entire being go numb and he knew it wasn't because of the cold. He exchanged a look with Malik; he couldn't even cry anymore over a loss of a friend. Fear was beginning to take over and it was just the two of them now. Malik delicately picked up the paper doll of his lost best friend and cradled it to his chest. Yuugi began to play with the paper heart as they walked home, the rain was beginning to clear up but the darkness didn't go away.

It wasn't until after they got back to Yuugi's apartment that they realized the paper heart was the next clue. It was so strange, coming back to such an empty place that was once filled with people. Now their friends were narrowed down to two and Yuugi constantly looked over his shoulder, wondering if Yami would suddenly appear.

They put Bakura's doll beside the rest of them. It was a long line up; they all stared at him with those waxy, crayon eyes. Malik burrowed himself into a pile of blankets, shaking badly.

The riddle on the heart was simple, something one would learn in kindergarten.

_What gets bigger the more you take away from it?_

Malik and Yuugi both knew the answer; it was a hole.

Malik chuckled dryly. "It doesn't really say who is next but that doesn't matter. I'm going to be next; Yami wants to save you for last." Malik burrowed himself deeper into his cocoon. "It doesn't say how it's going to happen, but that doesn't really matter, does it? As long as you know it's going to happen." Malik's voice was surprisingly calm but Yuugi could hear the hysteria in his voice.

"Malik, calm down…" Yuugi said, his voice weary.

"So that means I'm going to fall into a hole…somewhere," Malik said, his voice wavering at certain points.

Yuugi shook his head. "No, Malik, there is still a chance to find the base."

Malik looked out the window at the dark sky. "We're never going to find it…"

"You don't know that," Yuugi said, trying to sound encouraging. "I have an idea; Yami said something about the hint being as clear as black and white. And then, in my first dream, he said something about image and reality."

Malik looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, "How do we know what is reality? We could still be in the paper house. Like, maybe we're in someone's nightmare right now. Maybe we're still in the old Game?"

Yuugi shook his head. "No, Malik, we got out of the old Game," Yuugi said as if he were speaking to a child. "Just lie down, Malik; I'll get you a glass of water." Yuugi moved to stand up but Malik's hand shot out and gripped Yuugi's wrist, tugging him back down.

"No!" he cried desperately. "Don't leave me! When you leave me alone, the Shadow Men will get me!"

Yuugi made soothing shushing noises and sat back down next to Malik, rubbing his back comfortingly. "Okay, I'll stay right here with you, Malik."

Malik shook his head and giggled. "No, it's not okay. I have to go to the bathroom but then one of the Shadow Men could get me in there too. I really have to go though. What a dilemma, huh?" He giggled again.

"Malik, stop it," Yuugi said with force behind his words. It made Malik look up and into Yuugi's eyes for the first time since they found Bakura's paper doll. "Calm down, I won't let the Shadow Men get you. I'll stand right outside the door. Just do your business and then we can talk about the base."

Malik stared into Yuugi's eyes a moment longer and then sighed. "Okay," he said and got up to go to the bathroom, Yuugi trailing behind him.

Malik walked into the bathroom and Yuugi stood patiently outside the door, just like he promised. Malik left the door opened a crack. "Hey, Yuugi, the toilet is a lot like a hole," Malik said from inside the bathroom, his voice sounding small.

"Just do it, Malik," Yuugi called back.

"Okay," Malik said quietly. A moment later the toilet flushed.

"You see? You're just fine," Yuugi said…Malik didn't answer. Yuugi felt an odd feeling settle in his stomach. Worry…it was a familiar feeling at this point. "Malik?" Yuugi called. "Malik, this isn't funny, come on out of there." Yuugi pushed the door open and was greeted with an empty bathroom. Perched on the edge of a porcelain seat was a paper doll.

Yuugi took the small doll that looked so vulnerable, just as Malik was. He put it beside the rest of his friends. He was alone now. There was no one here with him to keep him company, to make him feel safe. Just six, small paper dolls. He had no one to protect him from Yami and he had a sinking feeling that he would never find the base.

Malik's violet eyes seemed to stare at him sadly, Yuugi had to turn away. He had promised Malik that he would be safe and Yuugi broke that promise. It was the same feeling he got when he "killed" Ryou. It was because he was the one who got Ryou into it. He had invited all his friends to play and it turned out to be deadly.

Yuugi had come out alive and Ryou was stuck somewhere in the Shadow Realm with those vicious Shadow Men. Now the rest of his friends were gone too.

His friends had been picked off one by one, like the Ten Little Indians. Now he was the only one left in the empty apartment. He had to find the base, no matter how dim the chances were. At least for his friends, before Yami got to him, then the Game would be over.

How could he? He had to remember the clues. But it was so hard with the emptiness crushing him. 'Think of the hints', he told himself. 'But I'm alone…"

Image as opposed to reality.

The thought came to him suddenly and he didn't understand why. A room that he had been in or gone through, but hadn't. Someplace that was familiar to him.

Yuugi knew that it wasn't in the Shadow World. It was in a halfway point like the game store he met Yami in for the first time.

Black and white.

A light went off in Yuugi's mind. He could hear it all clicking in his mind and it actually made sense. A room that he had been in but hadn't been in. It was impossible to be in this room, depending on how you looked at it.

It is as clear as black and white, like a picture.

Just then, a piece of paper came fluttering down from no where, like back in the old Game. Yuugi snatched it up and read it over quickly.

_I'm something. I'm nothing. / I am short. I am tall. / When you fall at your sport, then I stumble and fall. / I have never been seen yet beneath a new moon. I thrive in the evening but vanish at noon. / I am lighter than air, I weigh less than a breath; / Darkness destroys me, and light is my death._

A few weeks ago, Yuugi might have had trouble with this. But ever since the day of the Game, the subject of this particular riddle had been on Yuugi's mind. He had been haunted by it.

He saw the shadows all the time. He knew that that was what the riddle was about. A shadow was going to get him—_the_ shadow. Yami was going to take him away personally. He had barely thought of this when the lights in the apartment went out.

Yuugi felt a cold shiver run up his spine, like someone was running icy fingers up his back. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He had little time before Yami came here, he had to hurry and find the base.

The first thing he had to do was find his way through the apartment.

He could see a sliver of light coming in from outside from the streetlamps. So the kitchen was over there. He carefully made his way over to the kitchen and scrambled to find the drawer that grandpa's pistol was in, in case of emergencies. Yuugi held the gun in his trembling fingers, switching the safety off and keeping it pointed in front of him.

He felt his way down the hall. He felt a closed door to the left; that was his room. So two more doors down, take a right, and the first door on the right would be Mai's room.

Yuugi felt a presence right behind him, like someone watching him down the hall. This had turned in to a game of cat and mouse. And the mouse was running. The cat was playing with the mouse, taunting it.

"_Right before eating it?"_

Yuugi remembered Mai say that at the very end of the old Game.

That was the bathroom, now take a right. You're almost there, hurry! Outside, Yuugi could hear a car screeching as it made a sharp turn and then the sputtering of an engine as it died. He then heard a car door being slammed shut and footsteps running across the wet pavement.

Yuugi began to run, he knew that it wasn't smart of him but he ran anyway. It was like dealing with a bully, which was what Yami was. Don't run, you'll encourage chase.

He felt Mai's door, it was closed. He started to twist the knob furiously, it was stuck. 'Come on, come on!' Yuugi finally took a step back and kicked the door open. The force of the kick knocked the door off one of its hinges. Yuugi gained a lot of leg strength from running away from bullies.

Now there was the challenge of scrambling around in the dark until he found the blasted thing!

Was it his imagination, or did Yuugi hear footsteps in the house? Walking around, taunting him, and walking down the hall calmly. Yuugi tripped over his own two feet, his arms out in front of him, searching. Where was it?

"I won't let you win, Yami!" Yuugi cried as he blindly searched for what he was looking for. Mai's desk should be around here somewhere!

The footsteps faltered and then continued their confident stride. Yuugi felt like crying.

The lights began to flicker on and off, and when the lights were on, Yuugi could swear that he saw a great shadow with star shaped hair bounce off the walls. There was no doubt that Yami was physically in the house with him.

This wasn't a dream.

His legs were shaking so badly, he was surprised that he could still stand up. The cold metal of the pistol made Yuugi's hand numb. It was getting really hard not to cry now.

Finally the lights stopped flickering and died. It was pitch black, he could be anywhere around Yuugi now.

Yuugi took another step forward and his leg bumped against the leg of a chair. Yuugi nearly sobbed in relief as he groped blindly around the desk. His hand brushed something and he was so excited that he finally found it that he knocked it over.

There was the sound of breaking glass.

Yuugi dropped to the floor and began running his hand across the smooth carpet, trying to find it…again. He heard the whispering sound of someone counting to ten, and then, right in his ear, someone whispered,

"Ready or not, here I come."

Yuugi screamed and groped for the pistol, he felt his hand brush against something and it cut his hand. Yuugi was hefted to his feet and pulled against a hard, warm chest.

"You didn't think that I would actually let you get there, did you?" the voice whispered in Yuugi's ear.

Yuugi could barely hear him, his voice was drowned out by the rushing of blood in his ears.

"Actually, I'm surprised you made it this far. I didn't think you would. But again, I underestimated you. I told you back in the old Game that something had changed in you, but I never got a chance to tell you…oh well, we'll have plenty of time to talk."

Yuugi finally let the tears he had been holding back run down his cheek. Yuugi knew that he would faint if he wasn't supporting him.

Yuugi felt a comforting hand run itself through his hair. "Shh, there is no need to cry, Yuugi. You lost the Game, that's it. It's all over now, you don't have to be afraid anymore."

But this shadow didn't understand that Yuugi had every right to be even more afraid now. Yuugi looked around wildly, if only he could see a tiny light—but there was nothing. The Shadow Creatures weren't there to let off an eerie glow, that meant Akefia and Marik also weren't here.

He was all alone with _the_ Shadow Man.

And he was going to take him, just like he had promised at the beginning of this new Game.

"Oh, God, where are we?" Yuugi managed to choke out between his tears. "Are we at the base?" It was impossible to tell where they were in this darkness.

"No. Shh, shh, Yuugi. We're going to be there in a moment. It's okay, calm down." Yuugi hated how he relaxed at the sound of his voice. "See, here is the way."

Yuugi was nearly blinded when it suddenly became bright. It was a weird, eldritch light like blue electricity. Yuugi looked up and, now that he could see, saw Yami smiling down at him with a strange gentleness in his eyes.

Right in front of Yami's feet was a gap, a vortex. A hole.

-/-

**Ranko: I didn't like the beginning of this chapter, but the end of kickass! I have to admit, I felt really bad for Malik, I just wanted to give him a big hug! And I wrote this chapter in the middle of the night so I kept looking over my shoulder.**

**Yami: I was so creepy in this chapter.**

**Ranko: I know right.**

**Yuugi: Please don't tell me that Yami wins this Game, that would be the worst ending, right under the Black Butler season 2 ending. **

**Ranko: Don't worry, it won't be that bad. Anyway, who can guess where the base is now? Its not like I made it **_**obvious**_** or anything. **

**Yuugi: Also, Ranko wanted to be clever so the car that I heard outside while I was running through the house was supposed to be Jenny from the original book when she was running away from Julian.**

**Ranko: (pouts) I thought that it was cute. **

**Yami: Leave nice long reviews for Ranko!**

**Ranko: I am so close to 200!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Ranko: I love you guys so much! I am so close to 200 reviews! That is so cool, you guys are so awesome!**

**Yami: Ranko is so cheesy…(shakes head)**

**Yuugi: (shrugs) But that's why we love her.**

**Ranko: I know that I did something big for my first hundred reviews last story but I will not be doing anything special this time, sorry. I think I might just start a story of collected one-shots, if I'm not busy.**

**Yami: Can we just answer reviews?**

**Ranko: Fine…(holds up list) Before I forget, atoinette martino, I'm sorry that I keep messing up your user name. I write it out completely but it just turns into a 1, I don't know why.**

**lilpopsplash:**** You are so close to figuring out where the base is, but alas, not quite! You will find out in this chapter though. I love Malik too but last chapter I kind of imagined him as an escapee from an asylum ^^" Please continue to review!**

**AmerillaRose:**** Thanks for the awesome review! Yes, there will be a sequel, so fret not! But right now I'm just worried about ending this story ;) Please continue to review!**

**Chesirecat23TheWantedOne:**** Your reviews always make my head spin, but that's why I love them so much! Personally, I want Yami and Yuugi to get together too! I already miss Malik and I feel so bad for sending him off in such a weird way. Anyway, you shouldn't feel bad for not being able to guess the base, its fine! Please continue to review!**

**SokiKuro:**** Thanks for the awesome review! Don't worry, after this story, there will be a third one, but then that will be it. And I know what you mean, I find myself rooting for Yami half the time. You are so close to where the base is, but not quite! Please continue to review!**

**hikari no senshi17:**** Foul! I call a foul! Yami is cheating! Sorry, that is what I thought of when I read your review ^^ Pleas continue to review!**

**CandyFiend:**** First of all, awesome penname. Second, in my mind, Yuugi dropped the gun while he was looking in the dark so that is why he couldn't shoot Yami. I can't believe that I forgot to mention that last chapter, silly me -_- Pleas continue to review!**

**typark:**** It is totally fine that you haven't reviewed before! Anyway, your review made me so happy! You want to know why? Because you were the first one to guess correctly where the base was! You are so awesome, I just freaked out when I read your review! Let's see who wins this game, shall we? ;) Please continue to review!**

**TheGuardian'sOfTheFishbowl:**** I am totally fine with being called a demoness author, because I totally am! It is an awesome nickname, thanks! Please continue to review!**

**Yami: Couldn't have said it better myself.**

**Yuugi: Ranko twin does not own anything involved Yu-Gi-Oh or the Forbidden Games.**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

Yuugi couldn't stand to look at the vortex in front of him. It was similar to looking down the big hill of a roller coaster as it was about to drop. The rider knew what was coming and didn't want to look. So instead of looking, Yuugi buried his face in Yami's chest.

Yami ran a comforting hand up and down the boy's back as he began to shiver in fear, making soothing noises in his ear. "It's all right Yuugi, just a little step. Just a little step and we can finally be together."

Yuugi didn't know why but he felt comforted by this. He felt safe in Yami's arms. He leaned into the familiar touch subconsciously and found himself drawing away when he realized what he was doing.

But Yami's touch was so soft and caring, as if he held Yuugi too hard he might break. It was so confident, as if he knew that Yuugi would always come to him. Yami pulled away to look down at Yuugi and rubbed his thumb against the boy's delicate cheek bone. It came away wet. When had Yuugi started to cry?

Yami kissed away a tear that rolled down Yuugi's cheek. "Together, forever."

Yuugi felt Yami's lips all over his face, touching everywhere but his lips. It was as if the man was outlining Yuugi's face in his mind with his touch. Engraving it in his mind forever.

"It was meant to be Yuugi, you can't deny it. Stop running away and just accept it."

Yami's lips lightly brushed against Yuugi's and the boy considered for a moment actually going with Yami. His touch was so warm and comforting against Yuugi's skin, it made him feel safe. But then he remembered that Yami was evil, he remembered all the things he did to his friends, and that thought vanished from his mind.

A plan started to formulate in Yuugi's mind; slowly, carefully.

"Come with me now, Yuugi, let me love you."

Yuugi's heart skipped a beat and then he felt it drop down to his stomach. He absolutely hated it when Yami said that he loved him; Yuugi hated how it made him feel. He hated that he had to remind himself to not love Yami back because he was evil and had tortured his friends. But he always felt himself falter.

Yuugi internally scolded himself for thinking that way. "I'll go with you, Yami," Yuugi said softly. "Just let me go, I can stand up on my own." Even though that was a lie; it felt like his legs didn't have bones.

The moment Yami loosened his grip on Yuugi, the boy shoved him. He didn't think about it before he did, just pushed as hard as he could. Yami was obviously surprised; his usual gracefulness was lost as he went toppling backwards into his own black vortex.

He let out a surprised shout and reached out for Yuugi, but the boy was already gone. He ran around the vortex where he had dropped Mai's framed photograph of the two of them when they were little kids. It was the picture where Mai had Yuugi in her arms as she sat on the couch in Yuugi's old house.

As clear as black and white, he remembered Yami saying. Black and white as in a photograph. It was an image of reality, and image of Yuugi's entire living room with the basement door barely seen in the corner. It was a room Yuugi had been through in real life.

But he'd never been in it, because you can't be in a picture of a room.

But not Yami, he could make images into reality. If Yuugi could concentrate enough, he could make it real as well. Just like the mural in front of the game store where Yuugi first met Yami.

The image began to swirl and it opened up just like the vortex that Yuugi had pushed Yami in. It made Yuugi drop it in surprise.

"Yuugi!"

Without a second thought, Yuugi jumped through the vortex and it felt just like it had when he and his friends were sucked into the Game. Rushing wind, like a hurricane surrounding you. Yuugi felt as if his mind was not connected to his physical body.

Then all of those sensations came to a screeching halt and then Yuugi was lying down on a carpeted floor. It was a familiar color, beige with black flecks; but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before. He sat up and looked around…and then shouted in surprise.

All of the friends, the friends that he had lost, were all standing there in front of him, looking at him in surprise. No one uttered a word. Yuugi was still recovering from his shock; it felt as if he had not seen them in years. Anzu was even here!

Jounouchi gaped at him and then looked up at the ceiling. "You realize that you just fell out of no where don't you?"

And just like that, the thick tension in the room dissolved; everyone laughed.

Mai offered a hand to her cousin. She had old bruises all of her arms and Yuugi was sure that there were more that he couldn't see. She had large bags under her eyes but she still smiled for her cousin. "Are you alright, sugar?"

"Of course he's all right, he found the base!" Bakura shouted excitedly, he was dripping wet, his clothes clinging to his skin. "Take that!" he shouted at no one, extending his middle finger to the ceiling above them.

Yuugi was hefted to his feet and Malik immediately clung to him. "You lied to me," he whispered. Yuugi heard his friend's voice trembling; Malik was just as he was before he was taken: just a scared child. "You said that it wouldn't get me, and it did."

Yuugi felt a wave of guilt roll through him and he hugged his friend back tightly. "I know, I'm sorry." He pulled back and studied the faces of all his friends. Anzu was probably the only one that looked fairly decent out of the rest of them.

He went over to hug the girl. "It's you…it's all of you."

Honda stepped in and slapped a hand on Yuugi's shoulder. "Of course we're here, where else would we be?"

"We've been waiting for you to get us, Yuugi," Anzu said sweetly. "I knew that you would come, didn't I tell you guys?" she asked directing it towards the group of friends.

Yuugi looked at his friend worriedly, she was the one who had been here to longest. "Are you okay? I mean, are you all okay?" he asked.

Anzu shrugged. "We're alive, it feels like I've been gone forever, but these guys have been telling me it's only been a week or two." Anzu shrugged. "I still had to spend all that time alone;_ that_ was fun," she drawled sarcastically with an easy smile on her face.

"It's not so bad," Seto said, speaking up for the first time. "We sleep on the couch or the floor, we get food and water. But we could never get that door open," he said, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the basement door.

Yuugi looked around, this place was so familiar yet at the same time unfamiliar. He had vague memories of this place, his _home_. He had only lived here the first five or six years of his life, then he moved in with his grandpa.

"How did you guys get in here?" he asked, curious.

Mai pointed up. "The ceiling, just like you. A big vortex would open up and drop one of us off. Then it would just close up again." Mai shrugged. "There was never enough time for us to try and escape through the hole when it opened up again."

"Did the Shadow Creatures hurt you at all?" he asked to all his friend.

Mai picked at one of her scabs. "Not really, they just wanted us to fall in the hole."

"Where's Yami? I would have thought he would follow you here," Jou said.

Yuugi looked bashful for a moment, blushing a deep shade of red and avoiding eye contact with his friends. "I pushed him in the vortex…"

There was a moment of silence and then everyone began to laugh, everyone but Yuugi. They were laughing because of how it was insanely unexpected of Yuugi to do something like that, but the smaller boy was full of surprises ever since the first Game.

"He is going to be _so_ mad," Malik said, still chuckling.

Yuugi shrugged. "He already is so it doesn't mean any difference to me." Yuugi waved a hand to gesture to the room around the. "Besides, I found the base so I won. All you little lambs are free."

Then they all looked around and waited…nothing happened.

"Of course he would do something like this," Bakura muttered darkly. "That cheat."

"He has to let us out," Yuugi said looking around the room, everywhere Yami might randomly appear. "It's the rules of Game. Unless Yami is going to cheat."

"I never cheat," Yami said from the corner of the room by the lamp. Standing by the light made all of Yami's facial features pop out. "I practice gamesmanship, the art of winning a game without actually cheating."

"Then you'll let us go," Yuugi said, though he was slowly losing hope as he said that. He knew how Yami played. "I found the base."

Yami's eyes did not lighten in mockery or with a mischievous twinkle, they remained natural and blank. This unnerved Yuugi who was so used to seeing expression in those glorious ruby eyes.

Yami nodded his head. "Yes, you did. You found the base, you won the Game…now all you have to do is walk out," Yami said, pointing towards the door leading down to the basement.

The group of friends remained wary, not moving an inch towards the door. All eyes were on Yami; they expected the other two Shadow Men to pop out of no where and attack or one of the Shadow Creatures.

Yami obviously noticed this and sighed impatiently. "What are you waiting for? Go on, all you have to do is walk through that door and then you'll be outside the photograph. Back home, safe and sound."

Mai snorted. "I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him," she said. However, she still began to move towards the basement door, having to pass by Yami as she did. She continued to look over her shoulder as if Yami would suddenly attack; he simply bowed gracefully.

When Yami straightened up again, Yuugi saw it. The flash of mockery in his crimson colored eyes; a twinkle of mischief. Yuugi locked eyes with the Shadow Man and Yami smiled as Yuugi's eyes widened.

"Mai…" Yuugi said in a warning tone, but it was too late; the blonde was already at the door.

Then there was a loud _whoosh_, a sound that was both great and soft at the same time. It was the same sound a gas burner makes when it was turned on and the gas ignites. Only this one was a hundred times louder. It made Yuugi's ears pop and a blast a burning air rushed past his face and nearly knocked him off his feet.

Mai actually was knocked off her feet; she was thrown backwards by the force of the…whatever it was. Yuugi was immediately at his cousin's side.

"Mai! Mai! Are you okay?" he shouted, hysterical. His cousin was unresponsive. Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath, her long lashes resting on her cheekbones, and her head rolled limply on her neck.

Yuugi felt panic build up in his chest as he shouted, "Mai!" desperately.

Mai's eyelids fluttered open and Yuugi breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'll give the bastard gamesmanship," she said, her eyes narrowed and her breath still hitching.

"He's gone," Honda said. "And we're all in trouble so don't waste your breath."

Yuugi didn't understand what Honda meant at first and for a moment, he didn't care either. It wasn't until he looked up did he realize what Honda was talking about.

They were in the middle of a ring of fire.

It was just large enough to fit all of his friends and Yuugi could imagine that the living room from his old house was on the other side of the flames. However, no one could see through it. It was as high as the walls and it was hot.

And it was incredibly _loud_. Yuugi just realized that his friends had been shouting over the sound to be heard. It was like at a school dance when you have to yell over the music to get your friends attention; you don't realize you've been yelling until your voice gives out. But this was not a school dance, the fire sounded deadly.

He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder that made him jump in surprise. He looked up and over his shoulder and saw Jounouchi's worried face. "Yuugi, are you okay, pal?"

No, he wasn't okay. He was shaking all over, tiny tremors that passed through him. Despite the heat that surrounded them, Yuugi's fingers were ice cold.

Bakura leaned over Yuugi and looked into the boy's amethyst eyes. "He's in shock."

Malik snorted. "Of course he is, after everything that has happened I'm surprised he hasn't gone insane." Malik kneeled by his friend and rubbed his back soothingly. "Its okay, Yuugi, just relax."

Yuugi shut his eyes and tried to relax but as soon as he did, he felt dizzy. He tried to listen to his friends talking but it was nearly impossible over the roar of the fire.

"We can't last long in this heat," Seto said.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious but right now we need to figure out what we can do," Jounouchi snapped. Yuugi could imagine him rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly.

"We're going to be roasted," Honda said; it was meant to be a joke but Yuugi could hear Malik yelp in fright. "Anyone got any mint sauce?"

He heard Honda let out a cry of pain and then Bakura say, "If you don't shut up, I'll kill you myself."

'I can't let this happen to them,' Yuugi thought. His mind was frantic as he tried to figure out a way to get them out of this mess. He couldn't concentrate and his thoughts kept slipping away. Images of the last three weeks kept playing in his mind every time he tried to concentrate.

"_I never cheat. I practice gamesmanship…"_ Yami said.

Then Ishizu, her eyes looking far off into space. _"I had a dream the other night about a Hausa story…"_

Mai talking to him. _"An image is not reality…"_

Yuugi furrowed his eyebrows together as it all began to click into place. And then Yuugi sat up, when did he lie down? And his eyes popped open. All of his friends looked at him in surprise.

The fire was warm on his face and still let out a deafening roar.

"That's it, I got it," he said excitedly. "Everyone," he had to shout so they could hear him, "come over here. I've got it. I know how to get out of here."

Everyone gaped and began to frantically ask Yuugi questions on how. The boy laughed at the sheer brilliance of it.

Mai groaned and sat up. "My cousin has officially lost it."

Yuugi shook his head. "No, it's okay. I know how we get out…" There was a dramatic pause, everyone waiting with baited breath. "We just walk! The fire isn't real, its just an illusion. It can't hurt us if we don't let it."

Yuugi's friends didn't look nearly excited as he thought they would. They were actually starting at him blankly as they tried to register this.

"I think that you need a rest a bit more, Yuugi," Bakura said, pushing on the boy's shoulder so he could lie back down.

Yuugi swatted the hand away and jumped to his feet. "I'm not joking, we can just walk right through it."

"Yuugi," Anzu cut in softly. "I hate to burst your bubble, but that fire is real. It burned me; I have blisters," she said, holding out her arm so Yuugi could see.

Yuugi was wary for a moment and then he recovered. "That's because you let it happen, you believed the fire was real and it burned you. Please, believe me, Anzu," Yuugi pleaded.

"Yuugi, its really hot," Malik argued. "You can't even get near it."

Yuugi was really starting to get upset. "No, that's because you let it happen! Mai," he cried desperately, turning to his cousin. "Believe you, don't you remember Magritte? You told me that an image isn't reality and I said not unless someone makes it real? What if that someone is us? And Yami just makes us believe that its reality?"

"That's a pretty big _if_, sweetie," Mai said.

"But it's the only thing that makes sense," Yuugi shouted. "Yami said that he wouldn't cheat. If the fire's real and there is no way to get out of it, that's cheating."

Seto put a hand to his heart dramatically. "I think that you're faith in him is charming."

Yuugi didn't know if his face turned red from embarrassment or anger. "Fine, if you guys won't believe me, I'll show you," he said determinedly. He walked over to the wall of fire and before anyone could stop him, stuck his hand in.

Everyone shouted and Mai was immediately at her cousin's side, pulling his arm out of the fire. "What do you think you're doing? Are you fucking…" Mai then noticed her cousin's arm and her voice died out. "Crazy? How is this possible?"

Everyone crowded around Yuugi and saw that his arm was completely fine. There were no blisters or burns.

Everyone gaped at Yuugi's arm and the boy nodded. "See? It's just like the girl in Ishizu's story. The girl had to swim through a river of fire and she came out just fine."

"But the fire burned her," Malik said.

Yuugi nodded. "Yes, but it didn't kill her. If our will is strong enough, we can get through the fire."

Mai sighed. "Okay, I believe you, Yuugi. But what if we do walk in the fire and our will isn't strong enough anymore. Then what?"

"Toast…" Honda muttered under his breath; Anzu elbowed him in the ribs.

Mai through Honda a look. "It's too big of a risk," she said to Yuugi.

Jounouchi shook his head and stepped away form Seto. "What more proof do you guys need?" he asked, gesturing to Yuugi's arm. "I'll go through the fire with you, pal," he said to Yuugi.

Yuugi felt confidence build up in his chest. "Thank you, Jou."

"Hang on," Seto said, grasping Jou's arm.

The blond shrugged it off. "You're not going to stop me," he said to the taller man.

"Who said anything about stopping you? I'm going too," he said.

Jounouchi held onto Yuugi's hand and Seto grasped Jou's. Yuugi nodded and they were all about to walk through the fire when Yuugi felt a hand enclose around his right hand. He looked up and saw his cousin staring down at him faithfully. "You didn't think I'd let you go through this alone, did you?"

Yuugi smiled. "Thank you, Mai." He turned to the rest of his friends he was leaving behind. "We'll be right back to get you!"

"We have to go fast," Seto shouted over the fire.

Mai nodded. "I think the door is that way," she said, pointing in a certain direction.

Yuugi could feel Jounouchi's pulse beating through their connected hands. He looked up, thinking Jounouchi would be afraid, but it looked like the blond was on his highest adrenalin rush. "You ready?" he asked his friend.

Jounouchi nodded.

"Just think of cool, wet grass," Yuugi whispered to himself.

"Alright!" Jounouchi shouted. "On the count of one! Ready?"

Yuugi's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

Jounouchi disregarded him. "One!" he shouted.

And then they were surrounded by fire.

-/-

**Ranko: And I ended there! Have I ever mentioned how much I love Jounouchi?**

**Yami: Next chapter is the last!**

**Yuugi: (puppy dog eyes of death!) Please review…**


	16. Chapter 16

**Ranko: Oh my, Ra! Thank you guys so much for giving me 200 reviews! I love you guys so much!**

**Yami: I don't understand why you are so happy, it is the last chapter.**

**Ranko: (sad mood)**

**Yuugi: Enough of that, there is no need to be sad because there will be a third installment to the Shadow Game series…then you can be depressed because that will be it.**

**Ranko: Okay, before you guys make me even sadder, let's just answer the reviews.**

**hikari no senshi17:**** I know, it's craziness. But if it weren't crazy what fun would that be? Please continue to review!**

**raindropdew:**** I loved Yuugi last chapter! He was kicking ass! And Jou, oh goodness, I love him so much. I'm so glad you love my stories so much! Please continue to support me in the third and final installment of the Shadow Game series. Please continue to review!**

**AmerillaRose:**** Your wait is over because I bring forth the last chapter! I love Yami so much, even I was fooled by him at the very end. Hm…can there be a D) All of the above? ^^ Thank you for being so awesome and please continue to review!**

**Cheshirecat23TheWantedOne:**** Your review made me so happy! Don't worry, there will be a third installment to this little ol' series! Don't feel bad that you didn't know where the base was, there was no real clue until the very end, anyway. Your review made me smile (as always!) Thank you and please continue to review!**

**sea girl:**** Aw! Your reviews always make me happy! You're so nice and please continue to review (And I'll keep up the updates ^^)**

**lilpopsplash:**** The best time to read fanfiction is whenever your dead tired and high on caffeine (that is usually when I write fanfiction *_*) Please continue to review!**

**CandyFiend:**** I am not the brightest crayon in the box so it took me a while to get your joke, I feel so bad! Now I get it though! Don't feel bad that you didn't get it, it wasn't very obvious, actually (until the very end). Anyway, the reason it has so much suspense is because…wait, you think its suspenseful? Please continue to review!**

**TheGuardian'sOfTheFishbowl:**** Oh, you hate Yuugi and love Yami? That's new…though, you are right. Yuugi is so stubborn and Yami just wants to love him! And don't worry, I like rambling! Please continue to review! By the way, I really love my nickname!**

**Pharaoh Silver:**** Everyone loves Yuugi and Jounouchi, what about everyone else? LOL Anyway, please continue to review!**

**LaurelBird:**** Just saying, your review made me feel loved. Anyway, I actually write each chapter in, like, a day and spend the rest of my week doing nothing! Don't worry about excuses, I have a box full of them! I know how it goes. Yuugi is a little tough guy, but he is still the cute little uke we all love! I really don't know what else to say besides that your review made me laugh (in a good way)! Please continue to review!**

**Daemon Luciel:**** Woo! One point for Yuugi! Please continue to review!**

**Ranko: I hope you guys realize how much I love you considering how much freaking space I took up to answer all the reviews!**

**Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!**

**Yuugi: Enjoy!**

-/-

Yuugi felt as if his skin was being burned off. It was one thing to stick his hand in the flames for a few seconds, but when his whole body was surrounded by it, it affected him more than he thought it would.

His hair felt like a torch and he could swear that his skin was peeling off in black crisps. When he looked down at the hand that was holding onto Jounouchi's tightly, he saw smooth white skin.

It was easy to say, just walk through the fire. Doing it was another thing entirely. Now he understood what his friends were saying about it feeling real.

The first few seconds of walking in the fire were unbearable. He began to panic and he realized that it probably wasn't just an illusion, but a real fire. He was on fire and he had to run to get out of it. The only thing that prevented him from that was the firm grip both Jounouchi and Mai had on both of his hands.

The flames were all around him and Yuugi honestly thought that he was dying. But he couldn't let Yami win this Game, not after all the hell he put him through. He would show Yami, he would show him what he was made of and why they called him the King of Games.

"Cool, wet grass! Cool, wet grass!" he chanted to himself, yelling as loud as he could over the crackling of the flames so his friends could hear him as well.

'I have to make it,' Yuugi thought desperately. 'I am not going to lose. I have to do this for my friends, they're counting on me!'

"Cool, wet grass!" Mai began yelling beside him. He saw his cousin's face turning red from the heat and he felt perspiration pool in the palm of her hand.

And then it was like someone slammed into their backs, pushing them forward and into the light. Yuugi went rolling forward, the four friends falling in a heap on top of each other.

Yuugi felt plush carpet under his skin.

They were through.

Yuugi wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. They had made it. They were all alive. Yuugi still couldn't believe it. They were back in the apartment building. Before Yuugi could relish this thought further, he was pushed to the side by a firm hand as Jounouchi got to his feet; Yuugi had landed on top of the blond.

Jounouchi helped Seto to his feet and clasped hands with the taller man. "Well, we're alive." Seto grunted in response but smiled none the less.

Yuugi felt like dancing, he was so happy. He turned to his cousin and embraced her as she pushed herself to her feet; he almost knocked the two of them down again. "We did it! We did it! We're alive!" he cried joyously.

Mai laughed and rubbed her cousin's back. "I know! I know! Can you let go of me? I can't breathe," Mai joked.

This startled a laugh out of Yuugi but he backed away anyway.

"Yeah, but it is impossible," Seto spoke up. "No one could have lived through that fire."

"But it was all just an illusion, didn't you know that?" Jounouchi questioned, staring at the brunet questionably.

"Well…"

Yuugi was shell-shocked. "You didn't believe me?"

Seto stayed silent and Jounouchi fumed silently. "Then why did you go with us?" Jou asked.

Seto turned his head away so he wouldn't have to look at Jounouchi's honey brown eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and there was the tiniest tint of pink coloring his cheeks. "Well…that is because…I wanted to make sure to keep you safe," he said quietly.

This just resulted in Jounouchi getting angrier. "What do you think that I'm some kind of…?" His voice trailed off as realization dawned on him. "…Oh," he said quietly, looking away as well.

Mai sighed. "Alright, enough of the helpless shounen-ai!" she cried.

Yuugi gaped at his cousin, as well as Jounouchi and Seto, they had no idea that Mai knew that word. Even if she did know that word, Yuugi couldn't believe that she actually said it.

The girl walked over to the two men and pushed them together forcefully. The two boys were face to face, their noses barely brushing each other and both of their faces flaming red, and it wasn't because they had just gotten out of the fire.

"You two have been pissing me off lately," Mai continued. "I feel like there is just some greater being that is manipulating our lives and our whole world, and purposefully keeping you two apart just for her own amusement. I'm here to put an end to it! Seto loves Jounouchi and Jounouchi loves Seto so quit beating around the bush and provide some fan service!"

"Mai!" Yuugi cried, embarrassed that he was related to her. "Stop it!"

Mai looked at him helplessly. "What?"

Jounouchi looked up at Seto. "So, you…love me?" he asked.

Seto gulped and tried to keep eye contact with the boy but failed, having to look away. "And if I do?"

Jounouchi smiled and kissed Seto on the corner of his lips. This left Yuugi and Seto speechless, and Mai squealing like a fan girl. Jounouchi winked at the brunet who was blushing madly. "Then I guess we're just going to have to get through this alive so I can give you a proper kiss."

For once, Seto Kaiba didn't know how to control a situation he was in and was left paralyzed, unsure of what to do.

Mai cleared her throat, gaining the couple's attention. "I hate to break up this wonderful scene but we have four friends who are waiting for us back at the base."

Yuugi gasped. "Oh my, God! You're right!" He turned to where the vortex to the base should be and was met with a disturbing sight.

The vortex had grown to the size of one wall and was now on fire.

"Not all of us can go," Mai pointed out. "I'll stay here to wait for you guys and the rest of you go! Hurry!"

Yuugi nodded and grasped hands with Jounouchi again, Seto holding Jounouchi's other hand. They all ran into the flames quickly, to get to the other side and Yuugi felt agonizing pain again. This time, it didn't last as long and he was surrounded by cool air again.

They saw Bakura, Malik, Anzu, and Honda all standing there in a row, a few reaching out to catch them when they came tumbling forward. Yuugi fell into Bakura's arms and smiled up at his friend. "See? All in the mind."

Malik took Yuugi out of Bakura's arms and hugged the shorter boy. "You're alive!"

"Listen," Jounouchi spoke up. "We don't have much time, the vortex is burning up and if we don't get out soon we could be stuck here for a while, and by a while I mean forever."

Malik cringed and Yuugi had to rub his back to calm him down.

"It does burn and it does hurt, but it won't kill you," Jounouchi continued, "just count to ten and your out. You just have to keep thinking of cool, wet grass."

Honda's eyes glistened. "I'm excited, let's do this!"

Anzu held onto Honda's hand tightly and trembled, clearly afraid. Malik was in no better shape. Yuugi and Bakura had to calm the boy down. "It's just an illusion," Yuugi soothed.

"Okay, we have to _move_," Seto said. "We'll all hold hands and make a train so none of us will be stuck in the flames. Don't worry, everyone will be just fine. I'll lead the way and Jounouchi will take the back to make sure everyone gets out safe."

Bakura whistled. "When did you get so assertive?"

Seto just scowled at the man. Anzu held onto Seto's hand and Honda held onto Anzu's hand; or more like Anzu squeezed Honda's hand. Then Yuugi was in the middle between Bakura and Malik. Jounouchi was at the back, his blood circulation being cut off by Malik's hand squeezing his.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Seto called back. Everyone nodded in response; Malik was close to tears and Anzu was crying. The girl nodded and followed Seto into the flames, everyone else following one by one.

It was hard to keep control of Anzu when they stepped into the flames, she was crying and trying to run away; she was basically in hysterics. Malik was calmer than she was.

"No, I don't want to do this anymore…" she whimpered out pathetically. It was like when she rode a roller coaster and halfway up the hill she would start to cry and say she wanted to get off the ride.

Then the unthinkable happened…

Malik tripped. He didn't know how it happened but Yuugi's hand was suddenly empty. He stopped, Bakura didn't seem to notice because he kept walking forward. Yuugi turned around and began to look around frantically. "Malik!" he cried and then coughed violently when burning air filled his lungs.

He knew one thing though, if Malik had fallen behind, then so did Jounouchi.

Yuugi suddenly felt a hand grasp his own again and drag him forward; it felt like the time he was being dragged away from Ryou's nightmare, leaving his friend alone to die.

Then there was a rush of cool air and plush carpet. Yuugi felt miserable and in pain, but at least he was alive. He didn't know if he could say the same thing about Jounouchi and Malik though.

All of his friends were there and staring at him expectantly. Yuugi just shook his head as he tried to regain his breath. Bakura was breathing just as hard; he was the one who noticed Yuugi was gone and had turned back around to get him.

"Where is Malik?" he asked, although he already had an idea.

Yuugi shook his head again, using the excuse of smoke in his lungs so he wouldn't talk.

Seto's eyes widened. "Where is Jounouchi?"

Yuugi couldn't keep shaking his head. "Malik fell behind, Jounouchi must have fallen back to help him. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" he whispered pathetically, staring down at the floor.

Seto bit his bottom lip and looked as he was holding back a rant or a scream. "I'm going back in there," he said, advancing forward. This made Yuugi's head shoot up. He jumped to his feet and clung to Seto before he could take another step forward.

"No, you can't! It will kill you! The fire is getting worse by the second and if you went in there, you wouldn't make it back!" Yuugi cried.

Honda nodded. "The kid has a point."

"Shut up!" Seto snapped. "Your best friend is in there, you bastard! How can you not be concerned?"

Honda glared at him. "Don't you dare accuse me of saying I don't care about my best friend! I just don't think it is a smart idea to just—!"

"Um, guys," Mai said weakly, pointing in the direction of the wall of the vortex. Everyone turned and saw that it was slowly burning up at the corners like a piece of paper until all that was left was the original photograph and then that burned up as well.

Yuugi's eyes widened. He couldn't believe it. He had lost more of his friends. More of his friends had died because of Yami.

Dead…Jounouchi was dead. No more practical jokes, no more laughter during the morning walks to school, no more sunshine that just seemed to radiate off of him. And Malik…he had lost Malik, he promised he would keep him safe and he let him die. Poor Malik.

There was no screaming or crying from anyone; just silence as the realization hit everyone.

Their two closest friends were gone for good; it was just too much to think about or understand.

Then the tears came.

Yuugi collapsed to his knees, crying and hiding his face in his hands. He had lost them; they were gone. That was all that was going through his mind. He felt someone pat him on the shoulder and saw Seto with tears rolling down his cheeks, it was just like back in the old Game.

Mai hugged her cousin, warm tears falling on his neck. "Please, don't cry, don't cry." Yuugi didn't know if she was talking to him or herself.

And then everyone was huddled together, crying and holding each other and wave after wave of pain hit them.

Honda got up and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Look at it this way, they could have made it back to the living room and that means that they are safe; that they didn't die. It could still all be okay."

"You think so?" Yuugi asked hopefully; Honda nodded, tears still glistening in his eyes.

"Oh, God," Mai whispered breathlessly beside Yuugi. Yuugi looked at his cousin and she was pointing at the floor. They all turned to see what it was and Yuugi realized why his cousin was so shaken.

There were words scorched into the carpet.

They glowed red like coals in a fire and smoke rose them as if they were just freshly imprinted there.

_**Your friends are with me—in the Shadow Realm. If you want them, come on a treasure hunt and join me in another Game. But remember: if you lose, there is always a price to be paid. Prepare to pay up to the devil.**_

There was dead silence in the room for a moment and then Honda said, "That can't be good."

That startled a laugh out of everyone. "At least they're not dead," Anzu said gratefully. She gestured to the letters that were already beginning to fade. "Yami is just keeping them to bargain with."

"Sneaky bastard," Mai whispered under her breath.

Yuugi knew that he should be afraid, and trembling, but he wasn't afraid of Yami right now. He was furious and if he saw him any time soon, he would be sure to punch him.

Yuugi smiled and stood up, staring off into space. "He wants a new Game; I'll give him a new Game."

"This Yuugi scares me," Honda whispered to Bakura who elbowed him in the ribs.

"I know I can beat him," Yuugi said, paying no heed to what Honda said. "It isn't over until it is over. I'm coming for you Yami, and I'm not leaving without my friends."

-/-

**Ranko: Is it over already?**

**Yuugi: Not yet!**

**Yami: There will be a third and final installment to the Shadow Game series. We will post an alert to this story to tell you guys when it is ready but that won't be for a while. **

**Ranko: Thanks so much for all the support guys and please continue to support me in (****insert name of new story here****)! I promise I will continue When Life Gives You Lemons, I've just been busy lately. **

_**All three:**_** Please review!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Ranko: Hello all of you lovely readers, I bet you weren't expecting me to update on this story again, huh? **

**Yami: Well, grab your torches and pitchforks and go after Ranko because the third installment is not ready yet. **

**Ranko: No, don't hurt me!**

**Yuugi: (rolls eyes) This is like an alternate ending to this story or just a continuation of the ending. You remember the cover art for the Shadow Game, right? Well, the same artist is doing something similar for this story and we wanted to pay her back, so here it is. **

**Ranko: I'm not going to answer reviews, but this shows what happens to Jou and Malik after they got through the fire and were captured by the Shadow Men. **

**Yuugi: Ranko twin does not own anything related to Yu-Gi-Oh or the Forbidden Games.**

**Ranko: Enjoy!**

-/-

Malik's body ached all over. His skin was sensitive; he usually didn't get sunburns because of his heritage but he was sure this is what one might have felt like. His head was pulsing and it felt as if his skull would split open.

He was so tired and he just wanted to continue to lay there on the cold floor with his eyes closed and sleep like that forever. But he had an unsettling feeling that this place, wherever he was, wasn't the place to sleep.

He tried to push himself to his elbows but hissed in pain whenever his body fought against him. His skin was tingling and burning; he just wanted to scratch it to make the feeling go away but that would hurt too.

"Malik…" He heard someone call his name. It was like this person was miles away, their voice was so faint.

"Malik," the voice was a little louder this time. "Malik, wake up, come on."

Then he felt someone nudge his shoulder and he felt like crying. That hurt so much. He wanted to yell at that person to stop touching him before he dies from the pain but he didn't have enough energy to even open his eyes.

He felt someone's presence beside him; they wouldn't go away. Finally, Malik summoned up the strength and will power to sit up and open his eyes. His skin tingled and burned at the same time. His muscles were sore and his bones felt like lead.

Whoever this person was, they had better be important.

Finally, Malik peeled open his eyes and was immediately caught in a tight embrace. This time he did cry out in pain. The person who was hugging him let go and backed away so Malik could see his face. The first thing that he focused on were the golden brown eyes.

"Jounouchi?" Malik asked hesitantly.

The blond sighed in relief and hugged his friend briefly before helping him to his feet. "Yes, it's me. Thank God you're alright; I thought I hadn't made it through the fire."

Malik stared at Jounouchi in confusion and then all the pieces clicked together. He remembered what happened; it all made sense now. Yuugi wanted them to walk through the wall of fire, saying that it would be safe. They all walked in the fire in a line and Malik had lost his grip on Yuugi's hand.

He tripped, trying to reach for it, making Jounouchi trip too. Jou had gotten up first and got Malik up. He picked him and carried him, hoping to catch up the rest. The fire was disappearing quickly, leaving nothing but blackness. Jou turned to run back to the living room but it was too late, the blackness had engulfed them and they fell like they had fallen down a chute.

Then his next memory was of Jounouchi waking him up.

He couldn't believe that that had happened. Why did he have to be so stupid? If he hadn't have tripped then this never would have happened. If he hadn't have been so scared in the first place then they would be with their friends and not in some strange space. He wondered what his friends were doing now. Were they worried? Were they thinking where they were and how they could find them?

Malik blinked and looked around; where were they anyway? It was a completely white, open space. It looked as if there was no end, no walls, no ceiling. Malik only knew that there was a floor or else he wouldn't be standing now.

It was like being back in the paper house. The halls were go on, seemingly forever with no end. The only difference here was that there was no indication of where they were. They were just spots of color in an endless white.

Jounouchi seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Hey Malik, where are we?"

Malik snorted. "I was about to ask you the same question."

And then they both heard it; footsteps. Jou and Malik exchanged looks. The footsteps grew louder as the person neared and then it sounded as if they were running. The two boys looked around to see where the person was coming from but they could see no one.

Then Malik saw something, or someone. This person was dressed completely in white, with pale skin and all; that made it so hard to find the person because they were camouflaged well.

As the person neared, Malik noticed that it was a very slender boy dressed in white baggy pants and a matching short that hung loosely on his small frame. His hair was snow white…

Malik's eyes widened when the realization hit him. "Ryou…?" Was it possibly? Could it really be sweet, little Ryou that they lost in the last Game? But he was killed in his nightmare…no, Yuugi said that he was still alive, just being held captive by the Shadow Men.

Then Malik saw the chocolate eyes and he knew for sure that it was their friend. "Ryou!" he shouted, running to his friend. Jounouchi noticed it was Ryou as well and got there before Malik did, swooping the smaller boy up into a bone-crushing hug.

"Ryou!" Jounouchi cried, tears rolling down his cheek.

"Hey, Jou…" he gasped out, his face turning red from lack of oxygen.

Malik smacked Jounouchi on the arm, rubbing the tears from his eyes. "Put him down Jou and let him breath." As soon as Jou set the smaller boy down, Malik embraced Ryou tightly, letting the tears roll down his cheeks. "Ryou…I can't believe it's you…" he said between his tears.

Ryou smiled and patted Malik's back; the blond shook from his sobbing.

Jou had to pry Malik off of Ryou and keep his arm around his shoulder. "Ryou, are you alright? Where have you been this whole time?"

Ryou smiled and nodded. "I'm fine, Jou. And I've been here the whole time, just wondering around. I had been asleep for a long time though and only just woke up a week or two ago."

'When we started the new Game,' Jou thought to himself. "Where is here, exactly?"

Ryou opened his mouth to answer but a voice cut him off. "This is the Shadow Realm."

Everyone turned and saw Akefia standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, wearing a confident smirk. Ryou didn't even flinch the way that he used to when he always saw Akefia in the old Game.

Malik, on the other hand, was paralyzed.

"Really, I thought that the Shadow Realm would be darker than this," Jounouchi said in a sarcastic tone, but his knees were buckling from fear.

"Oh, it can be, trust me," another voice said from behind them.

They all turned again and saw Marik standing there, his hands shoved in his pocket and his fangs peeking out when he smiled. Malik shrieked and went wide eyed, gluing himself closer to Jou's side. "Jounouchi…" Malik whispered helplessly. "I want to go home," he choked out from his tears.

Akefia and Marik circled the three friends like predators. "Well, well, looks like we have new guests to welcome to our Realm. Care to introduce them to us, Ryou?" Akefia asked, leaning in until his breath was tickling Ryou's ear.

Ryou didn't even blink; he stared straight ahead stubbornly. "You know who they are, now leave them alone."

"Oh, you're so mean to us Ryou," Marik joined in. "Why so cold? I thought that we were friends."

Jou saw that the Shadow Men were just starting to act like bullies now. Ryou could never handle bullies well, but Jou was proud of the little guy; he stood his ground. He wasn't even shaking.

"Who ever said that we were friends?" Ryou said bitterly.

Akefia put a hand to his chest in mock hurt. "You're words cut me like a knife, Ryou-darling."

"_Darling_?" Jounouchi echoed, confused and furious at the same time.

"Don't call me that," Ryou said harshly.

"Why?" Akefia asked, half serious and half joking. "I thought that we were on better terms now."

"Why would you think that?" Ryou snapped, finally looking at the Shadow Man.

"Will someone explain to me what is going on?" Jounouchi asked, finally shouting. It was like they had forgotten that he and Malik were there. Well…Marik didn't forget that Malik was here, he had been staring at him the entire time and Jou finally noticed the deep shaking that was practically vibrating his entire right side.

Akefia stared at him in annoyance. "Ryou can explain to you, Marik and I have something else to do anyway. Come on, Marik," Akefia said, dragging his companion behind him.

Soon, they disappeared into the white, leaving the three friends alone; two were confused and scared, the other seemed annoyed and way too casual for this kind of situation they were in.

"What the hell was that?" Jou asked. "Why were you acting so buddy-buddy with the Shadow Men?"

Ryou snorted. "I would hardly call that 'buddy-buddy.'"

"Well, it was enough, now tell us what is going on here?" Jounouchi pressed stubbornly.

Ryou sighed. "It's kind of a long story. You see, when I was asleep, I had these weird dreams, if you could call them that. Some of them were of you guys and I figured that they weren't actually dreams but me seeing what was happening to you guys."

Jounouchi thought of the time when Yuugi told them about his strange dreams with Ryou in it and he wondered if those dreams might have been two-way. Stranger things have happened.

"I also had dreams where I was looking back into the past," Ryou continued.

"How far back is the past?" Jou asked, thinking that he was just talking about the old Game.

Ryou twiddled his thumbs like he used to do. "Back to Ancient Egypt."

There was a stretched out silence. "…What?" Jou finally asked.

"Okay, this is where things start to get strange but you have to believe me when I say this. I saw the Shadow Men's past lives when I was sleeping, you know, their lives before they _became_ Shadow Men."

Jou furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you saying?" Of course he knew what Ryou was saying, he just refused to believe it.

"Before the Shadow Men were Shadow Men, they were human too. They had human lives but I guess something happened to them while they were human that made them Shadow Men, I don't know. The visions didn't show that much," Ryou said.

"That is insane," Jou said just above a whisper.

Ryou nodded his head. "I know that it is crazy, I didn't think it was true at first either; but it is true. I was only able to see visions of Akefia though, and it wasn't much, just enough. I think it is because he made a connection with me or something."

Jounouchi shook his head. "All right, enough of this, we have to find a way to get out of here and then we can talk more about this."

Ryou shook his head. "I don't think there is a way to get out of here. It is the Shadow Realm and the Shadow Men can control what this place looks like and where they want you to be. That's why its all white, like a blank canvas they can paint on."

"So what are we supposed to do, wait?" Jounouchi asked, the idea not sounding very appealing to him.

Unfortunately, Ryou nodded. "That's about it, you can also sleep…and dream." Ryou smiled softly and looked at Malik who had fallen asleep against Jou's side; he pushed Malik's bangs behind his ear, out of his face. "That is sometimes more helpful then anything else."

_Dream ~_

"_Hey Marik, do you think that I'll ever be able to see the sunset as a free man and not as a slave?" he asked, staring longingly at the orange horizon from behind the iron bars of his cell. _

_Marik stared at his long time friend and felt a pang in his heart. "I hope so…"_

* * *

"_It's okay, there's no need to cry, it's going to be all right," Marik soothed as he rubbed his friend's back. _

_He was shaking from his crying and clung to Marik tightly. "No, how can you say that, it won't be all right! Don't lie to me! I don't want to go, Marik! Please don't let them take me! I don't want to be separate from you! Do you know what they will do to me when you're gone? They're disgusting hands all over me…please…don't leave me."_

"_I promise, I'll never leave you…" Marik whispered, holding his friend close to him and letting him cry._

* * *

"_No!" Marik cried, trying to get free from his restraints to go to his friend. Their village was burning, set ablaze by local bandits. When he and Marik tried to escape, the bandits had caught them and started to beat them. _

_They had tied Marik to a wooden post and made him watch as they raped his friend and beat him do death. They were still kicking around his friend's body; he was barely breathing and looked as if he were barely hanging on. _

"_Stop it now! No! Stop torturing him! I swear, when I get free, I'll kill all of you!" Marik screamed furiously. _

_The spark in his friend's lavender eyes completely faded as he slipped away. _

_Marik's mouth opened in a soundless scream and then shouted, "Namu!"_

Malik awoke with a scream and sat up straight up. He looked around; he had woken up from a nightmare and ended up in another nightmare. He was still in the Shadow Realm but at least he had Ryou and Jou with him.

"Malik-pretty," someone said right by his ear.

Malik shrieked and quickly put his hand to his mouth to cut off the sound.

The felt strong, surprisingly warm, arms wrap around his torso from behind and pull him against a firm chest. "Malik-pretty," the voice said again, this time it was closer. Malik could feel someone burry their nose in his hair. "You're my Namu, aren't you?"

"What?" Malik squeaked out, terrified at the moment.

"I had my suspicions when I first met you, but now I am certain that you are him. God, I am so happy that I have finally found you. You have no idea how long I have been looking for you, have you? I am so sorry, Namu, I made a promise that I couldn't keep but now we're both here and I can make it right."

Malik knew that it was Marik who was talking to him. He wanted to shove him away. He wanted to scream and cry. But he couldn't find it in his heart to do any of that. Marik sounded so broken and lost, yet relieved and happy. There was no dark aura around him like there usually was and Malik felt…comfortable.

So he decided to stay in Marik's arms a little longer and make him think that he was this "Namu" person, even though Malik knew that he would regret it later.

-/-

**Ranko: Don't kill me! This is not a cliff hanger because I will be continuing this in the next story!**

**Yami: Which you haven't started on yet.**

**Ranko: Shut up, Yami!**

**Yuugi: Anyway, we hoped that you liked it Vann-chan and the wonderful bronzeshipping moment at the end. We hope that there will be more of that in the last story!**

**Ranko: Anyway, this is just a glimpse of what happened to Jounouchi and Malik after the fire, so yes, there will be more moments like these in the next story to clear any confusion. **

**Yami: Review and pressure Ranko to start the next story soon!**

**Ranko: Ah! Yami, stop being mean to me!**

**Yuugi: Thanks again, Vann-chan!**


	18. ALERT!

Ranko: Hey, hey, hey! Guess who is back and has an announcement for you guys!

Yami: Yes, you guessed it. The third installment of the Shadow Game, Checkmate, has been uploaded and it should be ready to read at any time. And let me tell you guys, this one is going to be good.

Ranko: You only like it Yami because—

Yuugi: No spoilers!

Ranko: Oops?

Yuugi: Also, the cover page for Ready of Not, Here I Come is uploaded and there is a link on Ranko twin's profile (at the very top). You guys can also see the image in the little box to the left of the story but it isn't the complete picture, it got cut off. So please, go on Vann-chan's (also known as Sozan-Uzumaki on deviantart) profile to see the full thing and comment on the picture. She worked really hard and it looks amazing!

Ranko: So why are you guys still reading this super long note? Go out and read Checkmate or look at the cover page for Ready or Not! See you guys later!


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